I think at the moment, you know, a de-escalation is a good thing. but there's obviously a lot of work to do. to really alive at a... real stable deal. that can endure over a period of time. I'm encouraged by the prospect of the potential visit. from the US president. that we still wrapped in the fall, but for the moment. I do not think the escalation on either side was constructive and so. I'm much prefer a de-escalation, I think both. both sides. I really had a purpose in that meeting. Talk constructively. to have a more de-escalated environment, and that allows now for constructive conversations. as they move forward.

over the most recent time.

negotiations are complicated and There are a lot of issues on the table. They need thoughtful responses and responses that can be durable. the both sides of brace and get to the right place. Yes, there's someone's certain duty because it's a one year delay at all this, but it's also a realistic period of time to try to get the right kind of deal done so both economies can move forward and a constructive way. A little piece of the two most important economies in the world. I think it's very important. Let that.. you know we arrive in a better place. where we can both participate constructively with each other and the global growth of the world.

There's more appetite for it than there was 12 months ago. I remember actually. Last November. sitting in a dinner. I'm in the United States with a group of US investors. And this topic came up and there were a couple of investors. They basically said, we all should be working to China. And the reason, the reason that had evolved that way. is if you look last fall. the prices had gotten so cheap. The capital flows have been so in the other direction. Right. That it you just knew. that things would come more into balance than they'd be recycled. And we've seen that recycled. We've seen a big move in prices year over year. You've seen more foreign capital coming and start to participate. That's a fundamentally different question. about the big capital allocators. really fundamentally shifting their allocations up to be higher again. So far, direct investment in China has come down. And I think one of the questions is until we understand. kind of the trade. and the geopolitical landscape, it's harder. and see significant shifts. back to higher levels of foreign direct investment and more capital allocation. But for the moment, those flows are making for better IPO market here and more opportunities here.

Well, you know, Goldman Sachs competes just fine. Thank you very much. Yeah, when it comes to taking public companies public on a global stage. common sex is a leading position without a leading position. for 50 years. and there's always competition in the business and you know we'll continue to compete so we welcome competition but we have a pretty active footprint out here as you well know. They're pretty active footprint around the world. Look one of the big advantages I just had breakfast this morning. with a company here. emocmonics. that it's actually Chinese company, but the CEO of the founder was here. And why does he value government sex? He values government sex because we have access to people, information, capital markets, all over the world, not just in an Arab portion of the world. So I... It's a competitive business that always will be but I'm... I'm comfortable that we have the resources and the position to compete effective.

What do you want your franchise to become longer? I think you have to look at Goldman Sachs and just think strategically that... as a global firm. that when you think about our businesses, what are our two big businesses? Global Banking of Markets, the investment bank in trading business. and asset wealth management. And so if you think about how we think strategically about the firm, what advantages does the firm have. He signs the fact that we have. at scale businesses where We're very good at those activities, we're leaders in those activities, and we have a right to compete when. You know when those activities... Another big advantage for the firm is we're truly global. and in fact we're more global and have a capacity. to communicate an interact. globally for our clients. it away.

not many firms can't. And so if we think about where GDP is in the world, where big economies are in the world. The China is always going to fit that pill. and varnish a much more significant shift. in geopolitics. and the relationship between the US and China, they're definitely issues, they're definitely things that need to be sorted. But China's going to continue to be one of the most important economies in the world. The US has got to continue to be the most important economy in the world. and we're linked. and so as a big global firm that does what we do. we have to be long term committed. to serve in our clients that need access. to advise. capital and resources. you know, in China and around the world. And of course, we've got to do that. in whatever environment. the regulatory structure or the geopolitics play up. but what long term committed within long term committed in more or may long term committed? unless there was something that significantly changed that year.

Governments are always going to repyne and weigh in. on different transactions, the regulatory approvals in the United States, or SIFI, I mean, all sorts of issues.

That is a very different thing. very different thing. government. taking an investment. you know in a specific company. Wouldn't surprise you? I'm not a big fan of that as a general practice that doesn't mean there are exceptions. because I believe that the markets. should allow capital formation and competition around companies. This administration is... is in one or two situations. They're taking actions like that. You know, as I said, I'm not... black and white and dogmatic, there can't be exceptional circumstances. But I don't think as a general practice having governments take stakes and companies. is the direction of the travel we want our free market system to go.

You know, in the US, the US is a huge part of the global M&A market, either for target or acquire.

You know, I would say it's extremely constructive, at least see it. you know in our advisory business you can take a look at our You know, M&A revenues last quarter. which a reflection of deals closing, but if you also go through our earnings call. You know, we made. a comment about the level of our remedy backlog. Yes. I love the remedy backlog. I'm not just an indication of the fact that there's a lot of activity. inside the firm. I say this is really rooted. from the fact that we went through a period for four years during the Biden administration. where if you wanted to do something strategically. You wanted to do something significant from an M&A perspective. whatever the question was the answer was done. We're now an environment where whatever the question is the answer is maybe I fix CEOs around least. in believing that they have a chance of doing strategic things to advance their position to advance their scale. to advance. you know how they sit competitively. And so we see a tremendous backlog. of significant consolidating situations, what I'll call large cap M&A, large cap M&A in the United States is up very, very meaningfully. deals over $10,000. Very, very big for Europe and Europe. And so I think we're in a pretty constructive environment and my expectation is... is 26 and 27. will be quite constructive. in terms of large cap M&A particularly in the United States.

how you hire a raven just headcount in this part of the world. But it's interesting to me that you go right to headcount. and I actually think that. you know the fact um It's a different lens. then the lens that we would look at. I don't know if you saw it, but... We reported earnings to weeks ago. We put out a memo. that we called Goldman Sachs, one Goldman Sachs 3.0. Well, we highlighted. the approach that we were taking to integrating AI and we talked about. I hand-fold things. that were goals including. operating efficiency automation. better sales management. and then we identified six processes. that we are going to look at from a very fresh perspective to see if we could automate them. and build better efficiency so that we would have more capacity. to invest in areas in the business where we see growth opportunities. And so, I think for a firm like Goldman Sachs, they're two avenues here. One, we have very smart people.

and we can put these tools in their hands. and that makes them more productive. And by the way, that's no different. than 40 years ago when I was starting. and somebody gave me a desktop computer. and load us one, two, three software. And I had the ability to do a spreadsheet and a fraction of the time that it took me before that tool was put into my head. That just continues. That's been going on for 40 years. It doesn't mean we have less smart people inside Goldman Sachs. You'll look at Goldman Sachs. C realise fortility? person. It's much higher today than it was 25 years ago. And my guess is... 25 years from now it will be much higher than it is today. But our goal is to... Figure out ways that we can invest in growth because we see lots of growth in our franchise. by using AI technology to reimagine processes. We can create operating efficiencies and it gives us more of a scaled opportunity to reinvest in growth in the business. and look, of course, over the way they're... they're going to be shifts in jobs and job functions. as they're always had them. And one of the things you've got to wrestle with today is the pace of this is quicker. And so since the pace is quicker There's a chance that it might be a little bit more disruptive. You know in the short term, but at the end of the day. Technology changes jobs, changes the way people work. This has been going on for a long, long time. is continuing. I don't think it's different this time.