Morgan Stanley CEO: AI CapEx could hit $1.5T by 2028

Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs are focused on providing financing for the current AI development boom — as well as developing the tech for themselves to make operations more efficient. “Each major tech cycle has produced a tenfold increase in compute capacity [and CapEx],” Ted Pick , chairman and chief executive at Morgan Stanley , said today during the company’s earnings call. According to Morgan Stanley’s research AI compute and progression would be 10X from the last transformation of cloud compute of $1 trillion, Pick said, adding that the investment bank expects nearly $10 trillion to flow towards the AI economy over the coming years. The AI CapEx can hit $1.5 trillion in 2028, up from nearly $800 billion earmarked for 2026, Pick said. The accelerating adoption of AI, not only by consumers but also across enterprises, has a potential for enhanced efficiencies and productivity that is only beginning to be realized, Pick said, adding that Morgan Stanley is focused on providing financing to aid the buildout. The New York-based investment bank has deployed Debrief, an AI-enabled tool that takes notes for advisers in meetings with clients, and Morgan Stanley Assistant, which is available to nearly all employees as a coworking gen AI tool, according to FinAi News’ prior reporting. Morgan Stanley reported non-compensation expenses, which include tech expenses of $1.4 billion, up 7% year over year, in the second quarter. Aiding the AI buildout Goldman Sachs said the same thing about providing financing for AI buildout in its Q2 earnings call on July 14. “This is creating significant opportunities for Goldman Sachs to provide structuring, financing, risk management and capital markets execution across both public and private markets,” CEO David Solomon said. [caption id="attachment_57375117" align="alignright" width="300"] (Courtesy/Bloomberg)[/caption] While the company’s indicators are that the market is in the “early innings” of a significant AI build-out cycle, “these things don’t go in a straight line, and they can ebb and flow,” he said. “I'm not smart enough to tell you whether or not there can be recalibrations, in the short term,” Solomon added. “I will tell you that when you look over a three-year period or a five-year period, we're investing in long-term growth to support this. We're going to continue to be very consistent about that.” Recent AI moves at Goldman Sachs included: Helping clients deploy $1 trillion for AI initiatives in 2025; Deploying an AI coding tool with startup Cognition ; and Investing in internal cloud infrastructure and AI with its One Goldman Sachs 3.0 operating model , launched in October 2025. “One of the greatest benefits from our launching our 3.0 initiative is that we have galvanized the entire firm to understand that making efforts to scale our company and build more resilient, more automated platforms that can help us capture the significant growth in client activity that we've seen, that has been an enormous benefit,” Denis Coleman , the bank’s chief financial officer, said on the call. Goldman Sachs reported Q2 net earnings of $6.6 billion, up 78% year over year, on revenue of $20.3 billion, up 39% YoY. Shares of Goldman Sachs [NYSE: GS] were trading at $1,147 at market close today, up 0.7% from market open. Citi has a market capitalization of $338 billion. Shares of Morgan Stanley [NYSE: MS] were trading at $228 at market close today, up 0.4% from market open. Citi has a market capitalization of $360 billion.

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Morgan Stanley CEO: AI CapEx could hit $1.5T by 2028

Industry only 10% to 15% into an AI development boom

PayPal is working with Goldman, Evercore as suitors circle

Texas dealership group Autobahn automates back-end processes with AI

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