Wall Street banks are reporting a surge in fees from AI-related capital raising, loans, and advisory work, as a wave of technology spending fuels what Goldman Sachs CEO David Solomon called an "AI capex super cycle." The rush by companies to fund AI infrastructure-from chipmakers to data centers-is driving a multi-year dealmaking boom that is already producing some of the largest equity and debt transactions in recent history.
The week's second-quarter earnings calls from the biggest U.S. banks brought a string of comments about the breadth and durability of the trend. Investment banks have booked strong fees from marquee mandates, including SK Hynix's $26.5 billion ADR offering and SpaceX's record $86 billion initial public offering. Goldman Sachs served as lead left underwriter on the SpaceX IPO and is preparing to play a major role alongside Morgan Stanley in the upcoming listing of Anthropic, while rival OpenAI has also filed for a U.S. IPO.
Multi-year investment cycle
Solomon framed the build-out as a long-term shift. "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," he said during Goldman's earnings call. He added that the industry "is in the middle of an AI capex super cycle" where there is demand to use every financing instrument available.
Citigroup CEO Jane Fraser told investors that AI was "dominating a lot of the conversation" as spending on technology, data centers, energy, and defense accelerates. The bank earned over $70 million from its role as joint global co-ordinator on the SK Hynix sale. Bank of America recently extended a $520 million credit line to OpenAI, its first loan to the AI company, a person familiar with the matter told Reuters. BofA 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, according to internal data seen by Reuters.
Record deals driving fees
The deal sizes are reshaping league tables and fee pools. JPMorgan Chase, which has been involved in fundraising for AI-related companies and financing data centers, is working with Morgan Stanley on a roughly $13 billion financing package for a Meta Platforms data center in El Paso, Texas, Reuters reported in May. JPMorgan CFO Jeremy Barnum noted that the bank is seeing decent loan demand from companies with an indirect link to AI. "It's like the comments about data centers wind up creating a lot of demand for plumbers and electricians, so you wind up seeing it in sort of slightly non-obvious places," he said.
Stephen Biggar, director of financial services research at Argus Research, said the trend has broadened. "The AI-driven capex super cycle has benefited equity issuance, M&A activity and debt financing," he said. Bank of America CEO Brian Moynihan added that the U.S. economy has been supported by "ongoing AI-driven investments across the board and easing energy costs," though he flagged inflation and tighter monetary policy as key risks.
Why this matters for finance professionals
The AI capex cycle is creating fee streams across equity capital markets, leveraged finance, and investment-grade debt, with no sign of slowing. For professionals in capital markets, M&A advisory, and credit, the pipeline of AI infrastructure deals-from data center financing to IPOs of AI companies-is becoming a core driver of revenue. The mix of equity, loan, and structured finance mandates demands deep sector knowledge and the ability to structure complex cross-border transactions. Those who can navigate the capital flows and valuation debates around this cycle will be positioned to capture a significant share of the fees.
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