Goldman Sachs Creates Platform for Private Company Stakes
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- Goldman Sachs launched an "alternative investments platform" combining its existing alternatives business with two new teams — one for direct private company investments and a secondary advisory group for trading private stakes
- Goldman has arranged direct later-stage private investments for wealthy clients for roughly two decades, including pre-2012 Facebook, SpaceX, Stripe, and Canva, per global head of alternatives Kristin Olson
- Olson said the firm targets later-stage companies with "meaningful revenue and clearer paths toward profitability" rather than early-stage startups, seeking a "sweet spot" between risk and return
- Goldman is steering wealthy clients toward AI infrastructure including data centers alongside model-developer stakes, as the AI investment boom intensifies demand for direct private access
- The announcement came days after Goldman reported record quarterly revenue, with executives highlighting AI-driven activity across investment banking, trading, and financing
Why it matters: For wealthy clients and family offices, Goldman just created a one-stop shop to buy pre-public stakes and trade them on a secondary market — capitalizing on companies reaching trillion-dollar valuations before going public. The move formalizes a two-decade Goldman practice and arrives alongside record quarterly results driven by AI-related activity across the firm.
