Goldman Sachs has created a new platform to expand its offerings for wealthy clients and family offices who want direct stakes in fast-growing private companies. The initiative, named the alternative investments platform, combines Goldman’s existing alternatives business with two newly established teams, according to a memo seen first by CNBC. The memo states the new groups will focus on direct investments in individual private companies rather than broader private equity funds and will assist clients in buying and selling those stakes.
The move reflects two major trends reshaping Wall Street: a shift toward wealth and asset management as a source of steadier revenue than traditional investment banking, and a longer private phase for startups, which lets early investors lock in gains before an initial public offering. Kristin Olson, Goldman Sachs’ global head of alternatives for wealth, told CNBC that there has been substantial demand for access to growth opportunities before companies go public. "There has been a lot of focus on the big growth tech names and getting clients access to those before they debut in the public markets," she said.
Olson noted that companies are going public at a trillion-dollar scale, emphasizing that participation along the growth path matters for investors seeking exposure to high-potential firms. Goldman has been arranging direct investments in later-stage private companies for wealthy clients for roughly two decades, Olson said, citing examples such as Facebook before its 2012 IPO and later SpaceX, Stripe and Canva. The firm’s objective, she added, is to help clients identify promising companies before they become household names.
Rather than targeting early-stage startups, Goldman generally concentrates on later-stage companies with established products, meaningful revenue, and clearer profitability paths, seeking what Olson described as a "sweet spot" between risk and return. In addition to backing model developers, Goldman is increasingly directing clients toward investments in the AI infrastructure that underpins the technology sector, including data centers and related projects, Olson said.
The development accompanies Goldman's report of record quarterly revenue, with executives highlighting AI-driven activity across investment banking, trading and financing businesses. The move also formalizes Goldman’s growing business helping clients find liquidity for private investments through a new secondary advisory group, which plans to expand a marketplace for buying and selling private holdings and advising exits for investments held outside Goldman. "We said, let's break that out and let's make it very clearly defined as something that we're leaning into," Olson said, underscoring the firm’s strategic emphasis on private markets expansion.
