Goldman Sachs Vice Chair Rob Kaplan on AI Financing, Capital Structures, and Fed Policy

Goldman Sachs vice chair Rob Kaplan joins the program to discuss the recent wave of major AI-related financing deals and what they signal for markets. The conversation covers how investors are differentiating across business models, how companies are balancing equity against debt, and how the Federal Reserve may approach monetary policy in an uneven economy. Specific deals, industry trends, and policy questions are examined through the lens of a career spent advising clients and serving on rate-setting committees.

■ AI Financing and Capital Structure
- Goldman's role in Meta's equity raise, a SpaceX debt agreement, and Anthropic's IPO
- How the market is pricing sustainability, leverage, and credit quality
- Hyperscalers raising equity to keep debt-to-equity ratios in check

■ AI Demand, Adoption, and Regulation
- Infrastructure build-out versus model development and adoption trends
- Compute and token demand, and how pricing differs by token type
- Corporate use-case testing, staffing plans, and revenue expectations
- State-level moratoriums, job concerns, and debates over self versus government regulation

■ Federal Reserve and Monetary Policy
- The structure of a two-day FOMC meeting and how views are exchanged
- Reading inflation breadth: supply, demand, cyclical, and structural factors
- Rate-timing trade-offs, strategic versus tactical errors, and forward guidance

Investors, business leaders, and policy watchers will find context for evaluating AI-related financing and monetary policy developments. The discussion points to the terminology and trade-offs behind these debates, which can be used as a starting point when reviewing a company's capital structure or assessing an upcoming policy decision.