Direct Answer
Goldman Sachs was founded in 1869 by Marcus Goldman as a commercial paper dealership in New York City. Samuel Sachs joined in 1882, and the firm was renamed Goldman, Sachs & Co. in 1885. The firm operated as a private partnership for 130 years before completing its IPO on May 3, 1999, raising approximately $3.66 billion. Since 2018, David Solomon has led the firm as CEO, refocusing Goldman on investment banking, markets, and asset and wealth management after a costly and largely unwound foray into consumer banking.
Origins
Goldman Sachs was founded in 1869 by Marcus Goldman, a German immigrant who established a commercial paper dealership in the basement of 43 Exchange Place in lower Manhattan. Goldman bought promissory notes from merchants at a discount and resold them to banks, earning a spread on each transaction. This commercial paper business became the nucleus of one of Wall Street's most enduring financial institutions. Samuel Sachs, Marcus Goldman's son-in-law, joined the firm in 1882, bringing additional capital and family partnership structure. The firm was formally renamed Goldman, Sachs & Co. in 1885 and joined the New York Stock Exchange in 1896, expanding its capacity to trade securities alongside its commercial paper operations.
Key milestones
| Date | Event |
|---|---|
| 1869 | Marcus Goldman founds M. Goldman as a commercial paper dealership at 43 Exchange Place, New York City |
| 1882 | Samuel Sachs (Marcus Goldman's son-in-law) joins the firm |
| 1885 | Firm renamed Goldman, Sachs & Co. |
| 1896 | Goldman Sachs joins the New York Stock Exchange |
| 1906 | Goldman Sachs helps take Sears, Roebuck & Co. public, establishing an early reputation in equity underwriting |
| 1929 | Goldman Sachs Trading Corporation, a leveraged closed-end fund, collapses during the Great Depression; firm's reputation is badly damaged |
| 1930 | Sidney Weinberg takes leadership of the firm; begins rebuilding its reputation over the following decades |
| 1956 | Sidney Weinberg leads Goldman Sachs as underwriter for Ford Motor Company's IPO, one of the largest in U.S. history at that time; marks the firm's rehabilitation |
| 1969 | Gus Levy becomes senior partner; articulates the philosophy of being "long-term greedy," prioritizing client relationships over short-term gains |
| 1970 | Penn Central Railroad bankruptcy; Goldman Sachs had sold commercial paper for the railroad, leading to investor losses and reputational strain |
| 1976 | John Whitehead and John Weinberg become co-senior partners; Whitehead authors the Goldman Sachs Business Principles, with client interests first among 14 principles |
| 1994 | Global equities and currencies crisis; Goldman Sachs loses nearly $1 billion |
| 1998 | Long-Term Capital Management (LTCM) crisis; Goldman Sachs participates in the Federal Reserve-brokered bailout consortium |
| May 3, 1999 | Goldman Sachs IPO on the New York Stock Exchange, ticker GS, priced at $53 per share, raising approximately $3.66 billion |
| 1999 | Henry Paulson becomes CEO after Jon Corzine's departure |
| 2006 | Lloyd Blankfein becomes CEO; Henry Paulson departs to become U.S. Treasury Secretary |
| 2007 to 2009 | Goldman Sachs criticized for shorting mortgage securities while selling collateralized debt obligations to clients; U.S. Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations holds hearings |
| September 2008 | Goldman Sachs converts to a bank holding company to access Federal Reserve lending facilities; receives $10 billion in TARP capital |
| June 2009 | Goldman Sachs repays $10 billion TARP investment with interest |
| July 2010 | Goldman Sachs settles SEC charges related to the Abacus CDO transaction for $550 million |
| 2016 | Goldman Sachs launches Marcus, a consumer banking brand offering savings accounts and personal loans, in the United States |
| 2018 | David Solomon becomes CEO; Lloyd Blankfein retires |
| 2018 to 2020 | 1MDB scandal: Goldman Sachs charged with bribing Malaysian officials in connection with approximately $6.5 billion in bond offerings for the 1Malaysia Development Berhad sovereign wealth fund; Goldman and a subsidiary reach a settlement of approximately $2.9 billion in 2020 |
| 2019 | Goldman Sachs launches Marcus in the United Kingdom; begins Apple Card partnership with Apple |
| 2022 | Goldman Sachs begins retreating from consumer banking; sells Marcus personal loan portfolio to Apollo Global Management |
| 2024 | Goldman Sachs sells its Apple Card partnership to Synchrony Financial; consumer banking exit substantially complete |
CEO timeline
| Leader | Tenure |
|---|---|
| Marcus Goldman | 1869 to 1894 (founder) |
| Samuel Sachs | 1882 to 1928 (co-partner era) |
| Sidney Weinberg | 1930 to 1969 (key modernizer; led Ford IPO in 1956) |
| Gus Levy | 1969 to 1976 |
| John Whitehead / John Weinberg | 1976 to 1990 (co-leadership; Whitehead authored the 14 Business Principles) |
| Robert Rubin | 1990 to 1992 (later became U.S. Treasury Secretary) |
| Jon Corzine | 1994 to 1998 (later became U.S. Senator and New Jersey Governor) |
| Henry Paulson | 1999 to 2006 (later became U.S. Treasury Secretary) |
| Lloyd Blankfein | 2006 to 2018 (led firm through 2008 financial crisis) |
| David Solomon | 2018 to present |
Five eras of Goldman Sachs history
Partnership and reputation-building (1869 to 1928)
Marcus Goldman built his commercial paper business on speed and relationships. By buying merchants' short-term IOUs at a discount and reselling them quickly to commercial banks, Goldman turned a market inefficiency into a reliable business. The addition of Samuel Sachs and the firm's NYSE membership in 1896 gave Goldman Sachs access to equity markets. The 1906 Sears IPO showed the firm could bring large, complex offerings to market, and its underwriting reputation grew steadily through the early twentieth century. The partnership model concentrated ownership and profits among a small senior group, a structure that persisted for nearly a century and shaped the firm's culture of long-term relationship management over transactional deal chasing.
Crisis, damage, and rebuild (1929 to 1969)
The Goldman Sachs Trading Corporation, launched in December 1928 as a leveraged closed-end investment fund, collapsed spectacularly in the 1929 market crash. The fund had used leverage to amplify returns during the 1920s bull market; when prices fell, leverage reversed the effect catastrophically. Investors lost nearly their entire stakes, and the firm's name became synonymous with speculative excess. Sidney Weinberg, who joined the firm as a junior employee in 1907 and rose to senior partner by 1930, spent the next four decades rebuilding Goldman's reputation through client relationships rather than financial engineering. The 1956 Ford Motor Company IPO, which Weinberg had cultivated through a personal relationship with the Ford family and which he executed for a fee rather than underwriting risk, became the defining moment of the firm's rehabilitation. By Weinberg's death in 1969, Goldman Sachs had reestablished itself as a trusted advisor to major American corporations.
Institutionalization and globalization (1969 to 1999)
Gus Levy, who became senior partner in 1969, accelerated Goldman's move into equities trading and block trading, where the firm would buy large positions from institutions and distribute them. His phrase "long-term greedy" captured a philosophy that prioritized relationship value over short-term deal profits. The dual leadership of John Whitehead and John Weinberg from 1976 brought the firm's culture into explicit form: Whitehead's 14 Business Principles, with client interests declared first, became both an internal guide and an external positioning statement. The firm expanded internationally through the 1980s, opened a London office, and built out fixed income and currency operations. The 1994 bond market crisis tested the firm severely, as did the LTCM bailout in 1998, which exposed Goldman's balance sheet to concentrated credit exposure. Jon Corzine's departure in 1998 led to Henry Paulson's appointment as sole CEO, positioning the firm for a major structural change.
IPO and financial crisis (1999 to 2018)
The May 1999 IPO converted Goldman Sachs from a private partnership to a publicly traded corporation. The $53-per-share offering raised approximately $3.66 billion and gave partners liquidity on their accumulated equity stakes. The IPO also changed Goldman's incentive structure: publicly reported quarterly earnings introduced new pressure to show consistent results, and the firm's access to public capital markets expanded its capacity to take on proprietary risk. Under Lloyd Blankfein, who became CEO in 2006, Goldman built out its structured credit business and became a major originator and distributor of mortgage-backed securities and collateralized debt obligations. When the housing market deteriorated, Goldman famously built a net short position against mortgage securities in 2007 while continuing to sell CDOs to clients, a practice that drew intense criticism and a U.S. Senate investigation. The September 2008 conversion to a bank holding company gave Goldman access to Federal Reserve emergency lending facilities and deposits, fundamentally changing the firm's regulatory status. The $10 billion TARP investment, repaid with interest in June 2009, and the 2010 Abacus settlement with the SEC for $550 million closed the most acute phase of regulatory exposure from the crisis.
1MDB, consumer banking, and refocus (2018 to present)
David Solomon became CEO in October 2018 with a stated goal of diversifying Goldman's revenues beyond trading and investment banking into more stable, fee-based businesses. The Marcus consumer banking initiative, which had been launched under Blankfein in 2016, was central to that diversification plan. Marcus offered savings accounts and personal loans directly to retail consumers, a different business model than Goldman had ever operated at scale. At the same time, the 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) scandal from the firm's 2012 to 2013 bond underwriting work in Malaysia became a legal and reputational crisis of the first order. Goldman Sachs had earned approximately $600 million in fees for arranging bond offerings that U.S. and Malaysian authorities alleged were used to pay bribes and misappropriate public funds. The 2020 settlement, totaling approximately $2.9 billion across multiple jurisdictions, included a guilty plea from a Goldman subsidiary. By 2022, Goldman had concluded that consumer banking at scale required infrastructure and customer acquisition costs that did not fit its core business model. The firm sold the Marcus personal loan portfolio, wound down its relationship with Apple Card by selling the partnership to Synchrony Financial in 2024, and refocused on investment banking, markets (fixed income, currencies, and commodities plus equities), and asset and wealth management for institutional and high-net-worth clients.
Frequently Asked Questions
When was Goldman Sachs founded?
Goldman Sachs was founded in 1869 by Marcus Goldman, who opened a commercial paper dealership in New York City at 43 Exchange Place. Samuel Sachs, Marcus Goldman's son-in-law, joined the firm in 1882, and the firm was renamed Goldman, Sachs & Co. in 1885. Goldman Sachs joined the New York Stock Exchange in 1896.
When did Goldman Sachs go public?
Goldman Sachs completed its initial public offering on May 3, 1999, on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker GS, priced at $53 per share and raising approximately $3.66 billion. Before the IPO, Goldman Sachs had operated as a private partnership for 130 years. The IPO was one of the most anticipated Wall Street offerings of the 1990s and gave longtime partners liquidity on their equity stakes.
What was the 1MDB scandal and how did Goldman Sachs resolve it?
The 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) scandal involved Goldman Sachs arranging approximately $6.5 billion in bond offerings for the Malaysian sovereign wealth fund between 2012 and 2013. U.S. and Malaysian authorities alleged that Goldman employees paid bribes to Malaysian officials to secure the business and that funds were misappropriated. In 2020, Goldman Sachs reached a settlement of approximately $2.9 billion with authorities in the United States, Malaysia, and other jurisdictions. A Goldman subsidiary pleaded guilty to a U.S. federal bribery charge as part of the resolution.
Who has led Goldman Sachs as CEO?
Goldman Sachs has had several notable leaders. Sidney Weinberg served as senior partner from 1930 to 1969 and is credited with modernizing the firm and leading the 1956 Ford Motor Company IPO. Gus Levy led from 1969 to 1976, known for his phrase "long-term greedy." Henry Paulson was CEO from 1999 to 2006, when he became U.S. Treasury Secretary. Lloyd Blankfein served from 2006 to 2018, guiding the firm through the 2008 financial crisis. David Solomon became CEO in 2018 and has refocused the firm on its core investment banking and markets businesses.