Goldman Sachs Posts Its Best Quarter in 157 Years, Fueled by SpaceX IPO and Record Trading

Wall Street had a strong second quarter. Goldman Sachs had something else entirely. The firm posted diluted earnings of $20.98 per share for the three months ended June 30, nearly double the $10.91 it earned in the same period last year and 45% above what analysts had expected. Revenue reached $20.34 billion, up 39% from a year ago. Net earnings came in at $6.63 billion, a 78% jump year over year.

By the bank's own reckoning, and backed by Bloomberg, it was Goldman's strongest quarter in its 157-year history.

The SpaceX effect

The June IPO of SpaceX, the largest in history, was a direct driver of the quarter's results. Goldman led the deal alongside Morgan Stanley, collecting not just underwriting fees but also so-called soft dollars from hedge funds that paid for allocations in the oversubscribed offering. Equity underwriting revenues hit $985 million, up 130% year over year and 84% from the prior quarter. Investment banking fees overall rose 55% to $3.40 billion.

CFO Denis Coleman named SpaceX and an Alphabet equity raise as the standout deals on the earnings call. CEO David Solomon said the firm advised on more than $1 trillion in announced M&A in the first half of 2026, reaching that milestone faster than any bank in recorded history. Goldman held more than a third of the global M&A market during that period, according to Bloomberg.

Equities trading breaks its own record. Again.

Goldman's equities desk brought in $7.42 billion in Q2, up 72% from a year ago. It was the third straight quarter the firm had broken what Bloomberg calls the all-time industry record for single-quarter equities revenue. In just three months, the equities business generated more than it did across all four quarters of 2019 combined.

Both sides of that business did well. Intermediation revenues, from trading desks taking risk for clients in cash equities and derivatives, rose 60% to roughly $4.2 billion. Financing revenues from prime brokerage and securities lending to hedge funds also climbed sharply.

Investment banking backlog at a five-year high

Goldman disclosed that its investment banking fee backlog grew relative to both the end of Q1 2026 and the end of 2025, reaching its highest level in five years. That is driven primarily by advisory mandates and reflects an active pipeline of M&A and capital markets activity heading into the second half of the year.

Asset and wealth management was also solid. That division generated $4.60 billion, up 20% from a year ago. Total assets under supervision reached $4.04 trillion, up from $3.29 trillion twelve months earlier.

What could slow things down

Solomon acknowledged on the earnings call that this pace is unlikely to be sustained indefinitely. He described a typical technology financing cycle as one that includes recalibration, a reset, a drawdown, and then further acceleration. "That's what the path generally looks like," he said.

Operating expenses rose 26% to $11.67 billion, driven by higher compensation and deal-related costs, though the firm's efficiency ratio still improved to 58.8% for the first half of 2026, from 62.0% in the same period of 2025. Headcount fell 2% from the end of Q1 to 46,200.

The board raised the quarterly dividend to $5.00 per share from $4.50. During the quarter, Goldman returned $5.36 billion to shareholders through $4 billion in buybacks and $1.36 billion in dividends.

JPMorgan, Bank of America, and Citigroup all also posted strong results, with investment banking fees up 45%, 50%, and double-digits respectively. But Goldman's numbers stood apart. Whether they stay that way depends largely on whether the M&A boom holds and whether AI-driven capital markets spending continues generating deal flow at this pace.