A Backlog With No Dollar FigureThin moat

Goldman Sachs (GS) — moat facet

Goldman has no customer it depends on and no order book it can show, so its forward view is a sentence, not a number.

Goldman's revenue is diversified, but its forward visibility is thin, and the two should be kept apart. Unlike an industrial company with a contracted order book, Goldman discloses no dollar backlog. It describes its investment banking backlog in words only.

Investment banking fees by quarter ($M)2,191Q2 20252,840Q1 20263,395Q2 2026Goldman Sachs Q2 2026 earnings release; the backlog itself has no dollar figure
Fees are the only number; the backlog behind them is a word.

The words have been positive. At the end of 2025 the firm said its backlog was the highest in four years1. In the second quarter of 2026 it said backlog had increased compared with both the end of March and the end of 2025, with advisory up, but debt underwriting down significantly23.

That is all a reader gets. The rest of Goldman's revenue has no backlog in any form: trading depends on what clients do each day, and asset management fees on what markets do to assets. Only the management fees behave like a contract, and those depend on clients not withdrawing.

The contrast with the absence of customer concentration is the point. A firm with no dominant customer and no measurable backlog is safe from any single client's decision and exposed to all of them changing their minds together.

The pattern recurs in each release. At the end of 2025 the firm said its investment banking fees backlog had "increased significantly compared with the end of 2024"4. The words change each quarter; the scale never appears.

Backlog turns into revenue soonest in equity underwriting. It was $985 million in the second quarter of 2026 against $428 million a year earlier5; a quarter back under $400 million would show the pipeline had emptied faster than the firm's words suggested.

Moat trajectory: Holding steady

Backlog highest in four years (end-2025); debt backlog down in Q2 2026.

The number that tests this moat
Reported
Equity underwriting net revenues, latest quarter
$985M (Q2 2026) vs $428M a year earlier

The fee that turns backlog into revenue soonest; a quarter below $400M would show the pipeline emptying.

Source: Goldman Sachs Q2 2026 earnings results ↗
References
  1. ReportedAt the end of 2025 the firm said its backlog was the highest in four years.
    Goldman Sachs fourth-quarter 2025 earnings presentation and strategy update, Form 8-K exhibit 99.2 - Global Banking & Markets: league tables, wallet share, clients, financing and intermediation. — FY2025 · publ. 15 January 2026 · source ↗
  2. ReportedIn the second quarter of 2026 it said backlog had increased compared with both the end of March and the end of 2025, with advisory up, but debt underwriting down significantly.
    Goldman Sachs Form 10-Q for the quarter ended 30 June 2026 - segment pre-tax earnings and ROE, capital ratios and requirements, investment banking backlog, and the Industry Ventures and Innovator acquisitions. — Q2 2026 · publ. 3 August 2026 · source ↗
  3. ReportedIn the second quarter of 2026 it said backlog had increased compared with both the end of March and the end of 2025, with advisory up, but debt underwriting down significantly.
    Goldman Sachs second-quarter 2026 earnings results, Form 8-K exhibit 99.1 - segment and line revenues for the quarter and half, earnings, balance sheet, capital, VaR, assets under supervision and the dividend increase - Global Banking & Markets revenue by line for the quarter and half. — Q2 2026 · publ. 14 July 2026 · source ↗
  4. ReportedAt the end of 2025 the firm said its investment banking fees backlog had "increased significantly compared with the end of 2024".
    Goldman Sachs full-year and fourth-quarter 2025 earnings results, Form 8-K exhibit 99.1 - net revenues by region, net interest income, deposits, loans, AUS rollforward, capital returned and Apple Card effects. — FY2025 · publ. 15 January 2026 · source ↗
  5. ReportedIt was $985 million in the second quarter of 2026 against $428 million a year earlier; a quarter back under $400 million would show the pipeline had emptied faster than the firm's words suggested.
    Goldman Sachs second-quarter 2026 earnings results, Form 8-K exhibit 99.1 - segment and line revenues for the quarter and half, earnings, balance sheet, capital, VaR, assets under supervision and the dividend increase - firm results: net revenues, earnings, EPS, returns and costs. — Q2 2026 · publ. 14 July 2026 · source ↗
Sources
Generated September 28, 2026