Founding and establishment In 1869, Goldman Sachs was founded by
Marcus Goldman in New York City in a one-room basement office next to a coal chute. In 1882, Goldman's son-in-law
Samuel Sachs joined the firm. In 1885, Goldman's son,
Henry Goldman, and his son-in-law, Ludwig Dreyfuss, joined the business and the firm adopted its present name, Goldman Sachs & Co. The company pioneered the use of
commercial paper for entrepreneurs and joined the
New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in 1896. By 1898, the firm's capital stood at $1.6 million. Goldman Sachs entered the
initial public offering (IPO) market in 1906 when it took
Sears, Roebuck and Company public. The fund failed during the
Wall Street Crash of 1929, amid accusations that Goldman Sachs had engaged in share price manipulation and
insider trading. Levy was a pioneer in
block trading and the firm established this trend under his guidance. Due to Weinberg's heavy influence, the firm formed an investment banking division in 1956 in an attempt to shift focus off Weinberg. Levy is credited with the firm’s famous philosophy of being "long-term greedy," which implied that as long as money is made over the long term, short-term losses are bearable. At the same time, partners reinvested nearly all of their earnings in the firm. Weinberg remained a senior partner of the firm and died in July of that year. Another financial crisis for the firm occurred in 1970, when the
Penn Central Transportation Company went bankrupt with over $80 million (~$ in ) in
commercial paper outstanding, most of it issued through Goldman Sachs. The bankruptcy was large, and the resulting lawsuits, notably by the
SEC, threatened the partnership capital, survival, and reputation of the firm. It was this bankruptcy that resulted in
credit ratings for every issuer of commercial paper today by several credit rating services. Under the direction of partner Stanley R. Miller, the firm opened its first international office in London in 1970 and created a
private wealth management division along with a
fixed income division in 1972. It pioneered the "
white knight" strategy in 1974 during its attempts to defend Electric Storage Battery against a
hostile takeover bid from International Nickel and
Morgan Stanley.
John Weinberg, the son of Sidney Weinberg, and
John C. Whitehead assumed the roles of co-senior partners in 1976, once again emphasizing the co-leadership at the firm. One of their initiatives was the establishment of 14 business principles.
1980–1999 On November 16, 1981, the firm acquired J. Aron & Company, a
commodities trading firm that merged with the Fixed Income division to become known as Fixed Income, Currencies, and Commodities. J. Aron was involved in the coffee and gold markets. The former CEO of Goldman Sachs,
Lloyd Blankfein, joined the firm as a result of this merger. In 1983, the firm moved into a newly constructed global headquarters at 85 Broad Street and occupied that building until it moved to its current headquarters in 2009. In 1985, it underwrote the public offering of the
real estate investment trust that owned
Rockefeller Center, then the largest
REIT offering in history. In accordance with the beginning of the
dissolution of the Soviet Union, the firm also became involved in facilitating the global privatization movement by advising companies that were spinning off from their parent governments. In 1986, the firm formed Goldman Sachs Asset Management which provides investment and advisory services across public and private markets for institutions, financial advisors, and individuals. and joined the
London and
Tokyo stock exchanges, where its
mergers and acquisitions grew.
Robert Rubin and
Stephen Friedman became co-senior partners in 1990 and pledged to focus on globalization of the firm to strengthen the merger & acquisition and trading business lines. In 1990, the firm introduced paperless trading to the New York Stock Exchange. Rubin left the firm in 1992 to work in the
Presidency of Bill Clinton. That same year,
Jon Corzine became CEO, following the retirement of Friedman as senior partner. After decades of debate among the partners, Goldman Sachs became a
public company via an IPO in May 1999. Goldman Sachs sold 12.6% of the firm to the public, and after the IPO, 48.3% of the firm was held by 221 former partners, 21.2% of the firm was held by non-partner employees, and the remaining 17.9% was held by retired Goldman Sachs partners and two long-time investors,
Sumitomo Bank Ltd. and Assn, the investing arm of
Kamehameha Schools. The shares were priced at $53 each at listing. After the IPO,
Henry Paulson became chairman and chief executive officer, succeeding Jon Corzine.
2000–present In September 2000, Goldman Sachs purchased Spear, Leeds, & Kellogg, one of the largest specialist firms on the New York Stock Exchange, for $6.3 billion (~$ in ). In May 2006, Henry Paulson left the firm to serve as
United States Secretary of the Treasury, and
Lloyd Blankfein was promoted to chairman and chief executive officer. On September 21, 2008, Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley, the last two major investment banks in the United States, both confirmed that they would become traditional
bank holding companies. The Federal Reserve's approval of their bid to become banks ended the business model of an independent securities firm, 75 years after Congress separated them from deposit-taking lenders, and capped weeks of chaos that sent
Lehman Brothers into bankruptcy and led to the rushed sale of
Merrill Lynch to
Bank of America. On September 23, 2008,
Berkshire Hathaway agreed to purchase $5 billion in Goldman Sachs preferred stock, and also received
warrants to buy another $5 billion in Goldman Sachs
common stock within five years. The company also raised $5 billion via a public offering of shares at $123 per share. In June 2009, Goldman Sachs repaid the U.S. Treasury's TARP investment, with 23% interest (in the form of $318 million in
preferred dividend payments and $1.418 billion in warrant redemptions). On March 18, 2011, Goldman Sachs received
Federal Reserve approval to buy back Berkshire Hathaway's preferred stock in Goldman Sachs. On November 16, 2009, Goldman Sachs opened its new headquarters at
200 West Street. In September 2011, Goldman Sachs announced that it was shutting down Global Alpha Fund LP, its largest hedge fund, which had been housed under Goldman Sachs Asset Management (GSAM). Global Alpha, which was created in the mid-1990s with $10 million, was once "one of the biggest and best performing hedge funds in the world" with more than $12 billion
assets under management (AUM) at its peak in 2007. Global Alpha used
quantitative analysis and computer-driven models to invest, By mid-2008, assets under management (AUM) of the fund had declined to $2.5 billion, by June 2011, AUM was less than $1.7 billion, and by September 2011, after suffering losses that year, AUM was approximately $1 billion. In August 2015, Goldman Sachs agreed to acquire
General Electric's GE Capital Bank online deposit platform, including $8 billion of online deposits and another $8 billion of brokered certificates of deposit. In April 2016, Goldman Sachs launched GS Bank, a
direct bank. In October 2016, Goldman Sachs Bank USA started offering no-fee
unsecured personal loans under the brand Marcus by Goldman Sachs. In 2018, Goldman Sachs announced that
David Solomon would succeed Lloyd Blankfein as chairman and chief executive officer. , issued by Goldman Sachs Bank USA In March 2019,
Apple announced that it would partner with Goldman Sachs to launch the
Apple Card, the bank's first credit card offering. In August 2021, Goldman Sachs announced that it had agreed to acquire
NN Investment Partners, which had $335 billion in
assets under management, for €1.7 billion from
NN Group. In January 2026, Goldman Sachs announced that it has entered into an agreement to transition the
Apple Card program to
JPMorgan Chase in 2028. == List of senior partners and CEOs ==