Goldman Sachs Reports Limited AI Impact on Corporate Earnings

Goldman Sachs reports that accelerating US corporate spending on artificial intelligence has had a limited impact on overall earnings for S&P 500 companies. Analysis of second-quarter 2026 earnings shows that growth is concentrated among AI infrastructure firms and hyperscalers, whose earnings rose 54 percent year-on-year and accounted for approximately half of the total earnings growth for the S&P 500.

Only 2 percent of S&P 500 companies have quantified the impact of AI productivity on their earnings. Among those that provided data, there was no statistically significant difference in growth compared to their peers.

Enterprise spending continues to climb, with monthly AI expenditure per employee at the median company increasing from 5 dollars at the start of the year to 12 dollars in July. High-spending firms saw costs reach 650 dollars per employee. Most companies are funding these initiatives by reallocating existing labor and software budgets, with AI inference expenses currently representing less than 0.5 percent of total S&P 500 revenues.