AI "Super Cycle" Drives Wall Street Deal Surge as Banks Reap Record Fees from Infrastructure Financing
Goldman Sachs CEO David Solomon declared the industry is "in the middle of an AI capex super cycle," as investment banks rake in massive fees from AI-related deals including SK Hynix's $26.5 billion ADR offering and SpaceX's record $86 billion IPO. Bank of America has helped raise nearly $500 billion for AI companies since 2025.
Investment banks are reaping record fees from a surge in AI-related capital raising and financing activity, with Goldman Sachs CEO David Solomon declaring the industry is "in the middle of an AI capex super cycle" where there are demands to utilize every single financing instrument.
The deal wave includes SK Hynix's $26.5 billion ADR offering, the largest-ever U.S. listing by a foreign company, and SpaceX's record $86 billion IPO, which was the largest share sale in history.
Citigroup, which was a joint global coordinator on the SK Hynix sale, earned over $70 million from the deal, while Goldman Sachs served as the lead left underwriter on the SpaceX IPO and is also poised to play a major role alongside Morgan Stanley in the upcoming listing of Anthropic.
Bank of America has helped raise nearly $500 billion for AI-related companies since 2025, accounting for 60% of such fundraising across investment-grade debt, leveraged finance and equity capital markets.
The bank recently extended a $520 million credit line to OpenAI, its first loan to the AI company. JPMorgan Chase has also been involved with AI-related companies on fundraising and is financing data centers, with Meta Platforms working with Morgan Stanley and JPMorgan on a roughly $13 billion financing package for a data center in El Paso, Texas.
"The build-out of AI infrastructure remains in its early stages, and we believe this multi-year investment cycle will continue to drive elevated levels of strategic activity, financing, and capital formation across markets." – David Solomon, CEO of Goldman Sachs
Despite the blockbuster deals, July has been rough for technology stocks, especially microchip makers, as investors wrestle with high valuations and question the longevity of the AI capex boom.
The global AI spending surge is expected to reach $2.59 trillion in 2026, up 47% year-over-year, but Gartner notes that enterprises have yet to really flex their spending potential.
As the AI investment cycle matures, banks are positioned to continue earning fees from capital raising and advisory services, but the sustainability of the megadeal cycle depends on whether AI infrastructure spending translates into tangible returns.
