Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan and Morgan Stanley Are Dominating the AI Stock Boom — Here's Their Edge
The Big Three Capture Nearly 80% of Equities Revenue
Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan Chase and Morgan Stanley have generated a combined $52 billion in stock trading revenue so far this year, nearly 80% of the industry total. Wells Fargo banking analyst Mike Mayo told CNBC that in the AI mega trade the Big Three consider each other their main competitors, and that they are the best positioned to take advantage of this market. Morgan Stanley CEO Ted Pick said on the firm's earnings call: "We're still in a stock-based world. Equities are still, all things being equal, the attractive asset class."
Goldman Financing Surged 96% in One Quarter
Hedge Fund Leverage Is the Engine
A key driver is hedge fund leverage. Goldman collected more than $200 million in fees this year from Situational Awareness, an AI hedge fund run by former OpenAI researcher Leopold Aschenbrenner, making it the largest client in Goldman's prime brokerage business; the fund ran four times leverage and was forced to liquidate most of its public equity holdings after the July AI selloff. JPMorgan subsequently stopped lending to the fund, while Goldman, Citigroup and Bank of America continued acting as brokers at that point. JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon said in August that industrywide leverage was "the highest it's ever been," though he stopped short of calling the risk big enough to pose a threat to financial markets.
Regulators Eased Balance-Sheet Caps
Another tailwind came from regulators: the Trump administration finalized revisions in 2025 that eased stringent balance-sheet caps treating Treasurys and collateralized prime brokerage loans the same as riskier assets, giving dealers greater flexibility to deploy balance-sheet capital; banks could adopt the new rules as early as January 2026.
