Goldman Sachs ($GS) CEO Exit and Anthropic's $42B Loss: Who Wins?
Two of finance's biggest names are in transition, and the social chatter tells very different stories depending on where you're looking
Ticker Ratings
Two stories are dominating finance feeds this week and they have almost nothing in common, except that both are making people very loud on the internet. First up: Goldman Sachs ($GS) CEO David Solomon is expected to step down by late 2027, with COO John Waldron lined up as the heir apparent. YouTube's Seeking Alpha channel frames this as a tidy, well-choreographed succession. X is less diplomatic, with traders pointing out that Goldman's Quant rating is currently a Hold, weighed down by a weak F-grade for profitability, even as the bank posted revenue growth north of 23%. You can print 23% revenue growth and still get an F in profitability. Wall Street is something else.
Meanwhile, Anthropic's leaked IPO filing is the kind of document that makes accountants need a lie-down. The company is projecting a $42 billion net loss for 2025 and has committed a jaw-dropping $518 billion in future cloud and computing contracts. That capital doesn't evaporate into the void. It flows, almost surgically, to the cloud hyperscalers: Amazon ($AMZN), Alphabet ($GOOGL), and Microsoft ($MSFT). Seeking Alpha's YouTube segment on this calls those three the real winners of the AI race, and honestly, it's hard to argue. Anthropic's infrastructure spend tripled last year to $7.33 billion, eating more than half its operating budget. The AI arms race has a very clear arms dealer.
On X, the Anthropic conversation splits predictably. AI bulls are treating the $74 billion valuation as a floor, not a ceiling. The bears are screenshotting the $42 billion loss number and posting fire emojis. Both camps are probably right in different time horizons, which is the most annoying possible outcome.
Back to Goldman: the bull case is straightforward. Waldron is a known quantity, the transition is slow and deliberate, and 23% revenue growth is not a fluke. The bear case is that profitability remains a structural question mark, and a leadership change, however smooth, creates noise at exactly the wrong time, with 10-year yields sitting at 5.17% and investment banking deal flow directly correlated to rate stability. Neither of those things is stable right now.
The IPO market is also quietly confirming the vibe. Oura Ring just pulled its offering, citing insufficient demand at its target valuation, making it the third IPO postponement in three consecutive weeks. Long-only investors are sitting on their hands, saving dry powder for Anthropic's eventual listing. Which means the company burning $42 billion is, paradoxically, freezing everyone else out of the market just by existing.
Goldman navigates leadership changes. Anthropic navigates existential math. The cloud giants just cash the checks.