Which family owns Goldman Sachs?

Goldman Sachs has been a publicly held company since 1999. It is not owned by any one family.

Who is the largest individual shareholder of Goldman Sachs?

The insider with the largest number of Goldman shares is David Viniar, the lead director of the investment bank's board.

Is Goldman Sachs privately owned?

Goldman Sachs has been publicly held since its 1999 IPO.

Who runs Goldman Sachs?

David Solomon is the chairman and CEO of Goldman. He took over the investment bank's top job in 2018.

Who Owns Goldman Sachs? | The Motley Fool

Who Owns Goldman Sachs?

By Motley Fool Staff – Updated May 26, 2026 at 1:05 AM EST | Fact-checked by Frank Bass

Key Points

Goldman Sachs, a major bank since 1869, is mostly owned by institutional investors (74.3%).
Goldman's CEO David Solomon holds 141,970 shares, leading the bank's strategic operations.
Investors can own Goldman shares via market or limit orders through brokerage accounts.

Goldman Sachs, founded in 1869, is the world's second-largest investment bank by revenue, with $2.49 billion in fees collected by mid-May 2026. Let's explore who owns Goldman Sachs, who runs the banking behemoth, and how you can own shares of the bank.

NYSE: GS

Goldman Sachs Group

Today's Change

(-2.21%) $-23.56

Current Price

$1041.02

Key Data Points

Market Cap

$307B

Day's Range

$1031.01 - $1055.97

52wk Range

$592.90 - $1073.97

Volume

149.7

Avg Vol

2.1M

Dividend Yield

1.63%

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Who is the owner of Goldman Sachs?

Goldman Sachs (GS -2.21%) was founded by German immigrant Marcus Goldman in 1869. The bank had humble beginnings in a one-room basement office next to a coal chute. It grew steadily over the decades and took its first steps into the initial public offering (IPO) market in 1906 with the iconic Sears, Roebuck & Co. The bank gets credit for being among the first institutions to focus on price-to-earnings (P/E) ratios rather than book values to assess how much companies were worth.

In addition to its financial clout, Goldman has become politically powerful over the last few years, with several key executives serving in the federal government:

Robert Rubin served as Treasury Secretary under former President Bill Clinton.
Henry Paulson served as former President George W. Bush's chief financial advisor.
Steve Mnuchin held the top Treasury Department job under President Donald Trump in his first term.
Jon Corzine was a U.S. senator from New Jersey from 2001 to 2006 and served as governor of the Garden State from 2006 to 2010.

The company took a massive hit to its reputation during the 2007-09 financial crisis that led to the Great Recession when it was discovered that Goldman had been pushing subprime mortgage-backed securities to investors, even when it knew there was a dangerous bubble in the U.S. housing market.

Investing in bank stocks has become a bit less of a sure thing in the last couple of years. Goldman Sachs has registered fairly consistent growth over the last few years, with a 27% year-over-year increase in earnings per share as of March 31, 2026.

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How to invest in Goldman Sachs

So, you're interested in investing money in Goldman? Here's how to start:

Open your brokerage account: Log in to your brokerage account where you manage your investments.
Search for the stock: Enter the ticker or company name into the search bar to bring up the stock's trading page.
Decide how many shares to buy: Consider your investment goals and how much of your portfolio you want to allocate to this stock.
Select order type: Choose between a market order to buy at the current price or a limit order to specify the maximum price you're willing to pay.
Submit your order: Confirm the details and submit your buy order.
Review your purchase: Check your portfolio to ensure your order was filled as expected and adjust your investment strategy accordingly.

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Next, do your homework, especially about bank stocks. You may want to skip buying Goldman Sachs stock if:

You believe that investment banking deal volume will continue to slump.
You don't like many of the companies that Goldman is advising.
You expect that Goldman's workforce trimming will hurt its bottom line.
You're wary of Goldman's reputation.
You don't know much about the bank's business.
Your portfolio already has enough financial stocks.

On the other hand, you may want to go ahead and buy Goldman stock if:

You think Goldman will continue to be one of the world's top investment banks.
You believe interest rates will fall and spark renewed interest in mergers and acquisitions.
You expect Goldman's political connections to continue benefiting shareholders.
You'd like to balance your portfolio with a stock focused on investment banking.
You think Goldman's stock is undervalued and will rise even higher.
You're optimistic about Goldman's future.

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The bottom line on Goldman Sachs

There's no doubt that Goldman Sachs is one of the world's preeminent investment banks. It has recovered its reputation in the wake of the 2007-09 financial crisis, and Goldman continues to be a powerful political force.

As always, review your personal financial situation carefully before investing in stocks. If you decide to buy Goldman stock, you should be optimistic about the company's future, understand its business and direction, and be prepared to stick to a proven buy-and-hold strategy.

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FAQ

Goldman Sachs FAQ

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The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Accenture Plc, Advanced Micro Devices, Amgen, Apple, BlackRock, Chevron, Goldman Sachs Group, Microsoft, and Starbucks. The Motley Fool recommends Comcast, Delta Air Lines, and General Motors and recommends the following options: long January 2028 $260 calls on Accenture Plc and short January 2028 $280 calls on Accenture Plc. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

Vanguard Group, a privately held investment manager, owns 29 million shares valued at $28.92 billion. Vanguard manages about $12 trillion in assets. The company, founded by John Bogle, is the largest provider of mutual funds and the second-largest provider of exchange-traded funds (ETFs) worldwide.

BlackRock (BLK -2.70%) holds about 23.9 million shares valued at an estimated $23.85 billion. The multinational investment company manages about $14 trillion in assets, more than any other asset manager. It became a publicly traded company in 1999.

State Street Corporation (SST -5.95%) has about 19.6 million shares of Goldman, worth an estimated $19.5 billion. State Street is a Boston-based global financial services and bank holding company with about $5.6 trillion in assets under management.

Fisher Asset Management, a privately held hedge fund created by billionaire Ken Fisher, holds about 6.83 million shares of Goldman, worth roughly $6.8 billion. The company has about $387 billion in assets under management.

Geode Capital Management, a hedge fund that was spun off from Fidelity Investments in 2003, reports holding about 6.7 million shares of Goldman, worth roughly $6.7 billion.

Who is on Goldman Sachs' board of directors?

As of May 2026, the board included 13 people:

David Solomon is the chairman and CEO of Goldman. He has been a director since 2018, when he took over the investment bank's top job.

David Viniar is the independent lead director of the investment bank's board and chair of its governance committee. He has been on the board since retiring from Goldman in 2013.

Michele Burns has been on the Goldman board since October 2011. She was chairman, CFO, and CEO of Mercer (MERC -5.29%) and also worked as executive vice president and CFO at Delta Air Lines (DAL -1.55%). She is a board member of Anheuser-Busch InBev (BUD -1.91%) and Etsy (NASDAQ:ETSY).

Mark Flaherty joined the Goldman board in December 2014. He is a former vice chairman, partner, and senior vice president of Wellington Management Company, as well as director of global equity trading at Standish, Ayer, and Wood.

Kimberley Harris has been on the board since May 2021. She is chair of the compensation committee. Harris is the executive vice president of Comcast (CMCSA -5.35%). She worked as the principal deputy counsel for the White House during the Obama administration.

John Hess was CEO of Hess Corp., which was acquired by Chevron (CVX +1.28%) in July 2025. He is a member of the board of trustees at the Center for Strategic and International Studies and board chairman of the American Petroleum Institute.

Kevin Johnson joined the board in October 2022. Johnson worked as president, COO, and CEO of Starbucks (SBUX +0.42%) from 2009 until 2022. He has also held executive positions at Juniper Networks (NYSE:JNPR) and Microsoft (MSFT -3.15%).

Ellen Kullman is chair of the board's public responsibilities committee. She joined the board in December 2016. Kullman is a former chairman and CEO of E.I. du Pont de Nemours (DD -1.42%) and is also on the boards of Amgen (AMGN +3.15%) and Dell Technologies (DELL -3.26%).

KC McClure was the CFO of Accenture (ACN -4.34%) from 2019-24 and is a board member of Advanced Micro Devices (AMD +3.93%). She is recognized as a thought leader in the transformative impact of artificial intelligence on finance and enterprise operations.

Thomas Montag is chairman of the board's risk committee. He joined the Goldman board in July 2023 after spending his career at Goldman and Bank of America. Montag is the CEO and director of Rubicon Carbon.

Peter Oppenheimer has been a member of the Goldman board since March 2014. He has been a top executive at Automatic Data Processing (ADP -1.48%) and Apple (AAPL -1.57%), where he retired in 2014 after working as a senior vice president and CFO.

Jan Tighe joined the Goldman board in December 2018. She also serves on the board of General Motors (GM -0.04%) and Huntsman (HUN -1.73%). Tighe is a retired Navy vice admiral who last served as deputy chief of naval operations for information warfare.

John Waldron is president and chief operating officer (COO) of Goldman. He oversees many of the firm’s day-to-day operations and strategic initiatives.

Who Owns Goldman Sachs?

Key Points

NYSE: GS

Key Data Points

Who is the owner of Goldman Sachs?

How to invest in Goldman Sachs

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The bottom line on Goldman Sachs

FAQ

Goldman Sachs FAQ

Which family owns Goldman Sachs?

Who is the largest individual shareholder of Goldman Sachs?

Is Goldman Sachs privately owned?

Who runs Goldman Sachs?

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The bottom line on Goldman Sachs

Goldman Sachs FAQ

Which family owns Goldman Sachs?

Who is the largest individual shareholder of Goldman Sachs?

Is Goldman Sachs privately owned?

Who runs Goldman Sachs?

Who are Goldman Sachs' largest shareholders?

Who is on Goldman Sachs' board of directors?