A Goldman M&A Banker Helped Bring the Olympics to Los Angeles
Bloomberg
AI-assisted summary of A Goldman M&A Banker Helped Bring the Olympics to Los Angeles — original source. Check the original for full context.
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Key ideas
- Global M&A is pacing toward historic records, driven by corporate balance-sheet spending on AI and power infrastructure rather than private equity exits, which have dropped from 40% to 30% of total volume. (17:35)
- Unlike the debt-underwritten telecom crash of the early 2000s, today's generational AI capex cycle is self-funded by incumbent hyperscalers deploying hundreds of billions of dollars in organic free cash flow. (23:05)
- The Los Angeles 2028 Olympic Games is operating on a private funding model with zero permanent venue construction, utilizing UCLA student housing for 17,000 athletes and projecting 15 million ticket sales. (6:30)
- Goldman Sachs corporate earnings research shows that while 20% to 30% of enterprises have formalized AI rollouts, exactly 2% of public companies currently document a measurable positive contribution to EPS. (26:45)
Detailed notes
## Background Published by Bloomberg on their Odd Lots podcast feed on September 19, 2026, this live episode features hosts Tracy Allaway and Joe Weisenthal interviewing Gene Sykes, Co-Head of Global Mergers and Acquisitions at Goldman Sachs and board chair of the USOPC. Recorded at the Future Proof Festival in Huntington Beach, California, the episode description highlights Sykes's role in bringing the 2028 Olympic Games to Los Angeles, exploring how host cities finance mega-events alongside parallels between today's AI-driven megadeal environment and the early 2000s TMT boom.
## TL;DR Gene Sykes breaks down the privately funded financial architecture behind the LA 2028 Olympic Games, which circumvents municipal debt and abandoned 'white elephant' venues by relying on existing Southern California arenas and UCLA student housing. The discussion transitions to global corporate finance, where Sykes explains that M&A is tracking at record volumes fueled by massive balance-sheet investments into AI and its supporting physical infrastructure, such as power utilities. He contrasts this self-funded hyperscaler capex with the debt-fueled telecom crash of the dot-com era, noting that 80% of startups are structurally designed to be acquired by incumbents rather than survive independently. Sykes also examines enterprise AI adoption metrics, the resilient value of legacy media back catalogs, and why so-called 'mergers of equals' are operational fictions that inevitably consolidate power under a single management team.
## Atmosphere & style The live recording radiates a breezy, sun-drenched festival vibe from the Huntington Beach boardwalk, kicking off with playful host banter about pioneer migrations and notorious Southern California traffic jams. Joe Weisenthal and Tracy Allaway bring their signature approachable skepticism, gently grilling their guest on everything from exorbitant ticket pricing to whether enterprise AI adoption is mostly hype. Sykes counters with the calm, unflappable polish of a veteran dealmaker and sports diplomat, effortlessly pivoting between granular civic logistics and sweeping corporate history to deliver an engaging, articulate masterclass.
## Bulletin - `17:35` Global M&A is pacing toward historic records, driven by corporate balance-sheet spending on AI and power infrastructure rather than private equity exits, which have dropped from 40% to 30% of total volume. - `23:05` Unlike the debt-underwritten telecom crash of the early 2000s, today's generational AI capex cycle is self-funded by incumbent hyperscalers deploying hundreds of billions of dollars in organic free cash flow. - `06:30` The Los Angeles 2028 Olympic Games is operating on a private funding model with zero permanent venue construction, utilizing UCLA student housing for 17,000 athletes and projecting 15 million ticket sales. - `26:45` Goldman Sachs corporate earnings research shows that while 20% to 30% of enterprises have formalized AI rollouts, exactly 2% of public companies currently document a measurable positive contribution to EPS.
## Key takeaways - `06:30` The LA28 Games is designed as a privately funded event avoiding public deficits by utilizing pre-existing regional stadiums and UCLA residential halls rather than building new venues. - `05:46` The operational footprint of the Olympic Games dwarfs other mega-tournaments: LA28 will manage 17,000 athletes and roughly 900 medal events across 206 nations, compared to the FIFA World Cup's 600 players. - `14:48` Olympic commercialization balances long-term broadcast contracts—such as NBC's deal running through 2036 at over $1.5 billion per games—with a strict ban on in-stadium and on-field advertising. - `07:15` Anticipated urban gridlock can be prevented through proactive public communication and dedicated HOV Olympic transit lanes, replicating the smooth traffic flow achieved during the 1984 Los Angeles Games. - `17:35` Strategic corporate demand sparked by AI is expanding rapidly beyond software into foundational physical infrastructure, prompting deals across power generation, natural resources, and electric utilities. - `20:00` Venture market economics structurally direct roughly 80% of startups toward eventual acquisition by incumbents, leaving only a 20% differentiated cohort viable as standalone enterprises. - `20:00` Frontier foundation model companies such as OpenAI and Anthropic have expanded to valuations that make conventional buyout acquisitions virtually impossible, steering them toward independent public listings. - `23:05` The current AI infrastructure build-out is financially insulated compared to the early-2000s telecom bubble because it is funded by highly profitable tech balance sheets rather than speculative debt. - `26:45` Enterprise AI integration remains in its infancy from a bottom-line perspective, with only 2% of analyzed public firms reporting positive earnings-per-share impacts despite broad internal experimentation. - `28:40` AI will function as a cognitive amplifier in M&A advisory rather than replacing dealmakers, whose primary value rests on client trust and synthesizing complex macro, regulatory, and human variables. - `32:15` Established entertainment catalogs and intellectual property will appreciate in value as synthetic media floods the market, because audience trust and emotional familiarity become scarcer assets. - `34:45` Corporate boards are exhibiting an aggressive pro-deal mindset because leadership teams view the current accommodating regulatory and capital environment as an ephemeral window that could abruptly close. - `36:30` The term 'merger of equals' serves as a diplomatic governance mechanism to close a deal; in practice, 50/50 management power structures inevitably consolidate into single-entity control within 12 months.
## Detailed walkthrough ### `00:00` Sponsorship Messages: Agentic Commerce, AI Workflows, and Unforeseen Risks
The episode opens with reflections on modern commercial and financial infrastructure. An opening spotlight on PayPal explores checkout friction in the emerging era of agentic commerce—where automated software and autonomous agents initiate transactions, forcing platforms to rely on long-standing trust, 25 years of payments experience, global consumer reach across 400 million accounts, and robust fraud protection to reassure buyers at the point of conversion.
A succeeding message introduces ChatGPT Work mode (available on Plus and Pro tiers), positioned not merely as an informational search engine, but as an active tool that bridges fragmented source documents, briefs, and tasks across applications to turn disorganized starting materials into complete, reviewable first drafts. Finally, Cincinnati Insurance highlights the philosophy of risk management across its 75-year history of partnering with independent agents, reminding investors and business owners that long-term preparedness is less about anticipating predictable opportunities and more about resilience against blind spots.
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`02:24` Odd Lots Live at Future Proof: California Sunshine and the "Great Migration"
Hosts Tracy Allaway and Joe Weisenthal introduce the live show from the sandy boardwalks of Huntington Beach, California, marking their fourth consecutive year attending the Future Proof Festival. Joe cannot hide his sheer enthusiasm for Southern California's climate and coastal setting, humorously declaring that the festival organizers have essentially "brought heaven on earth" right to the Pacific shore.
Taking the scenic surroundings as an opportunity for philosophical banter, Joe jokes about the historic westward expansion of the United States. He wonders aloud why pioneer families during the Great Migration ever decided to stop their covered wagons in places like Nebraska when paradise was just a little further down the trail: "You could have gone a little bit further and you could have been in California. And it's like it was right there. And the question I have is, why doesn't everyone live here?" Tracy acknowledges the lure of the coast, noting that they made the journey out west specifically to interview a uniquely credentialed guest who bridges the highest levels of global finance and international sports management.
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`03:40` Introducing Gene Sykes: The Bridge Between Wall Street and the Olympic Movement
The hosts welcome Gene Sykes, the Co-Head of Global Mergers & Acquisitions at Goldman Sachs, longtime partner, and one of the pivotal architects behind the modern Olympic structure. Sykes has spent more than half his life as a Goldman partner, handling landmark advisory transactions across technology, media, and healthcare—including such era-defining megadeals as Comcast’s acquisition of Universal and Disney’s acquisition of Pixar. As a senior statesperson at the firm, Sykes explains that he now spends his banking hours advising clients who value strategic counsel, collaborating across internal deal teams, and mentoring the next generation of bankers.
Yet, as Sykes outlines, an equal or even larger share of his professional life is occupied by the Olympic and Paralympic ecosystem: - **LA Bid Committee Leadership:** Sykes initially served as the chief executive of the bid committee that sought to bring the Games back to Los Angeles, targeting 2024 before successfully securing the 2028 Summer Games. - **Board Chair of USOPC:** For the past four years, he has served as the Chair of the Board of the United States Olympic & Paralympic Committee, focused directly on athlete welfare and building "Team USA" so American competitors consistently reach peak performance. - **International Olympic Committee (IOC):** Approximately two and a half years prior, Sykes was inducted as a full member of the IOC, granting him visibility across global sports governance, host-city economics, and broad structural operations.
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`04:45` Defining Olympic Success: Unforgettable Experiences and a Unique Audience Demography
Tracy opens the discussion by admitting she is not an obsessive sports fan ("I'm not Sydney Sweeney, like sports, sports, sports, sports"), and asks Sykes what actually constitutes a "successful" Olympic Games from an organizational standpoint: is it strict fiscal discipline, keeping capital expenditures down, or simply delivering positive "vibes"?
Sykes emphasizes that above all, a successful Games hinges on creating indelible, emotionally resonant memories that spectators carry for the rest of their lives. The magic lies in the concentration of world-class human achievement: watching diverse sports and elite competitors in a single place at a single moment in time. Addressing Tracy's indifference to traditional league athletics, Sykes points out that the Olympic Games transcend typical fandom—asking how many casual viewers who would never watch an ordinary sporting match nonetheless become captivated fans of figure skaters like Alysa Liu. Furthermore, Sykes shares a striking demographic reality that surprises Tracy: the Olympic Games are the only major global sports spectacle whose viewing audience skews more heavily female than male.
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`05:46` The Enormous Sprawl: Contrasting the Olympic Games with the FIFA World Cup
To illustrate the sheer logistical scale and operational complexity of staging an Olympic Games, Sykes contrasts the upcoming LA28 event with the FIFA World Cup hosted across North America (the United States, Mexico, and Canada). While the World Cup is a colossal global soccer tournament, Sykes explains that its organizational sprawl is relatively concentrated compared to an Olympiad:
```mermaid flowchart TD accTitle: Scale Comparison Between FIFA World Cup and LA28 Games accDescr: Diagram contrasting venues, athletes, events, and ticket volume between the FIFA World Cup and the LA28 Olympic and Paralympic Games.
subgraph WorldCup["FIFA World Cup (US / MX / CA)"] WC_Venues["16 Stadiums<br/>(104 Matches)"] WC_Athletes["~600 Athletes<br/>(1 Governing Body)"] WC_Tickets["6.5 Million Tickets Sold"] end
subgraph LA28["LA28 Olympic & Paralympic Games"] LA_Venues["Dozens of Venues & Arenas<br/>(Southern California Footprint)"] LA_Athletes["17,000 Athletes<br/>(206 National Teams)"] LA_Events["~900 Medal Events"] LA_Tickets["15 Million Tickets Projected"] end
WorldCup -.->|"Significantly Higher Complexity & Sprawl"| LA28 ```
- **Athletes:** The World Cup features around 600 players across participating national squads, whereas the Olympic and Paralympic Games will bring roughly 17,000 athletes to Southern California. - **Competitions:** Rather than a single sport played across 104 matches, the Olympic program features roughly 900 distinct medal events representing almost the entirety of competitive sport. - **Ticket Volume:** The World Cup generates around 6.5 million ticket sales, whereas LA28 expects to sell approximately 15 million tickets across its Olympic and Paralympic sessions. - **Governing Complexity:** Rather than answering to a single federation like FIFA, the Games balance 206 national Olympic committees alongside dozens of independent international sport federations.
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`06:30` The Privately Funded Model: Leveraging Existing Southern California Venues
Tracy confronts the notorious reputation of the Olympic Games: catastrophic municipal budget deficits, public debt burdens, and abandoned "white elephant" venues left decaying after the circus leaves town. She questions headlines heralding LA28 as the first privately funded Games, asking what the actual financing mix looks like.
Sykes confirms that the operational budget is essentially privately financed, relying entirely on commercial sponsorships, ticketing, licensing, and broadcast revenues rather than local taxpayer subsidies. The only major governmental commitment is federal: the U.S. government provides direct security resources and coordination—a mandatory national security requirement given that 206 sovereign delegations and foreign dignitaries will descend on the region.
The core reason Los Angeles can pull off a privately funded model is Southern California's unprecedented concentration of pre-existing athletic infrastructure: - **Zero Permanent Venue Construction:** Unlike previous host cities, LA does not need to build a single permanent arena or stadium; world-class venues already exist and operate profitably across the region. - **The UCLA Athletes' Village:** While Paris had to construct an entirely new residential village for competitors, Los Angeles will simply house all 17,000 athletes and staff inside existing student dormitories and residential halls at UCLA. - **Capacity Headroom:** Sykes highlights that UCLA's campus routinely houses far more undergraduate and graduate students during a regular academic semester than the total population of athletes arriving for the Games, eliminating the need for speculative housing developments.
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`07:15` Busting the LA Traffic Myth: The 1984 Precedent and Ticketing Logistics
Joe raises the quintessential Southern California dread: debilitating gridlock. A friend living in Los Angeles had offered Joe their house for the duration of the Games, but Joe remains terrified of spending entire days stuck in freeway jams or battling labyrinthine ticketing applications across separate digital platforms. Tracy echoes the sentiment, pointing out that LA traffic is notoriously nightmarish even on ordinary days. Sykes responds with dry humor, joking that traffic is manageable at "four in the morning, the best of times."
Sykes reassures listeners by referencing history. When Los Angeles hosted the 1984 Summer Games, widespread public panic predicted gridlock of historic proportions, causing thousands of locals to plan vacations out of town. In reality, traffic during the 1984 Games moved smoothly because clear, advance civic communication dramatically altered commuter behavior: - **Behavioral Adjustment:** When drivers are informed well ahead of time about where events will occur, when closures will happen, and what travel windows to avoid, public transit usage spikes and discretionary vehicle trips decline. - **Dedicated Olympic Lanes:** Transit planners will repurpose Southern California’s vast network of high-occupancy vehicle (HOV) and carpool lanes into designated "Olympic lanes" to guarantee uninterrupted passage for athletes, officials, and ticket holders. - **Unified Ticketing:** Rather than navigating a fragmented maze of third-party ticketing brokers, spectators will interface through a single, streamlined registration portal and application. Sykes reveals that roughly half the ticket inventory is already committed or allocated in preliminary planning stages, encouraging prospective attendees to register early for subsequent sales windows.
`10:00` Ticketing, Venue Readiness, and the Lessons of Global Tournaments
Gene Sykes makes the case that attending the upcoming Los Angeles Olympic Games will be remarkably seamless for fans. Instead of forcing attendees to juggle multiple fragmented platforms, organizers are planning a unified digital experience: a single app that directs spectators where to go, tracks live schedules, and keeps physical lines to an absolute minimum. Crucially, Los Angeles avoids the traditional trap of building complex white-elephant venues from scratch. Every planned stadium and arena already hosts major sporting events on a regular basis, staffed by seasoned operators who handle massive crowds year-round. When host Joe Weisenthal jokes that Sykes is actively selling him on attending, Sykes quips right back: "You already have accommodation, Joe. You should just do it."
Turning to recent mega-events like the World Cup, Sykes reflects on the operational and cultural fallout. While acknowledging missteps—joking that he certainly "would have been careful about calling the president for a red card violation"—he highlights the profound cultural dividend the tournament paid in the United States. It brought world-class soccer (or football) directly to an American public that historically treated it as a fringe spectacle, transforming domestic appreciation for the sport. Furthermore, despite polarized global attitudes toward American politics, foreign fans encountered an open, welcoming, and vibrant host nation, leaving an overwhelmingly constructive international impression.
```mermaid flowchart TD accTitle: LA 2028 Fan Experience and Infrastructure Flow accDescr: Diagram showing how pre-existing venues and a unified digital app streamline the LA 2028 Olympic fan experience. subgraph Operational Foundation V["Existing Sports Venues<br/>(Seasoned Staff & Operators)"] A["Unified Single App<br/>(Tickets, Navigation, Schedules)"] end subgraph Fan Journey T["Advance Ticket Sales"] --> A A --> G["Minimal Wait Lines & Smooth Transit"] V --> G end G --> E["Frictionless Fan Experience"] ```
`14:48` Commercialization, Media Rights, and "Clean Venues"
Host Joe Weisenthal notes the perennial pre-event media panic—where headlines reliably warn that stadiums will not be finished, the grass will not take root, and international visitors will stay home due to bad vibes—only for everything to turn out fine in the end. Addressing skepticism around whether the broader social and political climate in the U.S. might depress attendance, Sykes pushes back unequivocally. The initial batches of tickets sold out immediately upon release. While acknowledging they are undeniably expensive, he refuses to apologize for premium market pricing, noting that massive gate receipts are essential to finance an event of this scale: "If you want to see the very, very best in sports, in any sport, at one place all at a very compressed period of time, it's a premium priced experience."
```mermaid flowchart LR accTitle: Olympic Revenue and Sponsorship Structure accDescr: Breakdown of International Olympic Committee and LA domestic revenue streams. subgraph IOC["IOC Level (Pre-Baked)"] M["Long-Term Media Rights<br/>(e.g., NBC through 2036, $1.5B+ / games)"] G["Worldwide TOP Sponsors<br/>(Coca-Cola, Visa, Samsung)"] end subgraph LA28["Domestic Organizing Committee"] D["Domestic Tier Partnerships<br/>(Google, Uber, Starbucks)"] T["Direct Gate Receipts<br/>(Market-Priced Ticket Sales)"] end IOC --> F["LA 2028 Olympic Budget"] LA28 --> F ```
Financing the Olympic Games relies on a layered commercial architecture split between long-term global commitments and domestic commercial inventory: - **Global Broadcast Rights:** The International Olympic Committee (IOC) locks in broadcast deals decades in advance; NBC has already secured exclusive U.S. rights through 2036—well before host cities for those later games are even selected—for sums exceeding $1.5 billion per games. - **Top-Tier Global Sponsors:** Longstanding IOC corporate partners such as Coca-Cola, Visa, and Samsung maintain perpetual institutional positions across all Olympic events. - **Domestic Commercial Rights:** Local organizing committees retain the authority to bring on dedicated regional partners, landing major brands including Google, Uber, and Starbucks to capture what Sykes predicts will be "the biggest event in the history of the world." - **Strictly "Clean Venues":** In stark contrast to FIFA tournaments—which drew sharp criticism for introducing artificial 15-minute hydration breaks purely to slip in more broadcast commercials—the Olympics enforce an absolute prohibition against commercial advertising on the field of play. Corporate branding is restricted entirely to offstage athlete-prep areas, guaranteeing that the visual focus remains undiluted sports performance.
`17:35` The Record M&A Wave Driven by AI and Infrastructure
The conversation shifts to the broader corporate media and transaction landscape. Drawing comparisons to the early-2000s dot-com bubble, Weisenthal observes a strange structural reversal in tech: legacy public tech giants no longer behave like the dominant disruptors, while fast-moving private artificial intelligence outfits appear to hold all the cards, fundamentally upending conventional deal-making playbooks.
Sykes reveals that, contrary to public perception, the global deal market is experiencing an unprecedented boom—tracking as "the biggest M&A year in the history of the world," positioned to easily surpass the previous peak recorded during the pandemic-inflated highs of 2021. The composition of capital flows has also shifted dramatically. For several consecutive years, roughly 40 percent of aggregate global M&A volume consisted of private equity sponsors selling portfolio companies; this year, sponsor exits have receded to 30 percent. Taking its place is immense, balance-sheet-driven strategic demand directly catalyzed by AI. This spending is not confined to software, but is rippling outward into foundational physical infrastructure, driving massive capital reallocation across natural resources, power generation, and utilities racing to supply the electrical grid needed to power compute clusters.
`20:00` Semiconductor M&A and the Startup End Game
The conversation turns to the relentless surge in semiconductor technology, semiconductor equities, and chip-related mergers and acquisitions. Every corporation is rushing to secure proprietary semiconductor capabilities, reflecting an overarching race for artificial intelligence positioning. The hosts joke about reading the Goldman Sachs M&A Outlook while lounging on the beach—noting it is the ideal spot, provided you don't get sand in the pages. This raises a fundamental strategic dilemma: can established incumbents simply purchase their way into AI nativity, or are clean-slate startups inherently better positioned to build ground-up AI architectures while incumbents struggle with complex internal integrations?
Gene Sykes clarifies the reality of venture economics: every startup, AI or otherwise, must confront its realistic endgame. For roughly 80% of startups, that endgame is selling out to a larger incumbent. Founders and venture capitalists design companies with this exit in mind, seeking the economic payoff by building a specialized piece of a larger technological puzzle. Only about 20% of ventures possess the rare differentiation required to survive as standalone, durable enterprises—or else they simply cannot find a buyer. He points to SpaceX as an iconic example of this 20%: rather than playing by the entrenched regulatory rules that bound aerospace incumbents, SpaceX chose to defy the conventional environment entirely, securing independence through radical differentiation.
Looking at contemporary AI giants, Sykes observes that foundation-model leaders like OpenAI and Anthropic have already scaled past typical acquisition thresholds, practically forcing them onto an independent path. This leads to banter about future public filings: the hosts ask whether an S-1 registration statement will eventually carry a legal risk factor disclosing a "non-trivial chance that our technology wipes out the entirety of humanity." Sykes agrees that corporate attorneys will almost certainly demand sweeping disclosures to insulate the company, humorously remarking that if ordinary investors actually read S-1 risk factors, they would likely never invest in public equities at all.
```mermaid flowchart TD accTitle: Tech Startup Strategic Endgames accDescr: Visual breakdown of startup outcomes between acquisitions and independent longevity as framed by Gene Sykes.
A["Tech Startup Ecosystem"] --> B["80% of Startups"] A --> C["20% Differentiated Outliers"]
subgraph AcquisitionPath ["Incumbent Integration"] B --> D["Fit into Incumbent Puzzle"] D --> E["Acquisition / Strategic M&A"] end
subgraph IndependentPath ["Standalone Scale"] C --> F["Defy Incumbent Constraints"] F --> G["OpenAI, Anthropic, SpaceX"] G --> H["Scale Past M&A to Public S-1"] end ```
- **Startup economics:** 80% of startups are structurally designed for acquisition by incumbents, while only 20% achieve the differentiation needed to remain independent. - **Scale constraints:** Top-tier AI foundation model labs (e.g., Anthropic, OpenAI) have grown so massive in valuation that they are "almost too big for anybody to buy."
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`23:05` Parallels to the Telecom Build-Out and the Dot-Com Bubble
Drawing on Sykes' decades of experience across the Technology, Media, and Telecom (TMT) sectors, the hosts highlight the historical rhyme between the current AI infrastructure spending and the telecom boom of the late 1990s and early 2000s. Back then, markets poured vast fortunes into laying thousands of miles of dark fiber. The thesis was directionally correct—the internet did eventually absorb all that capacity—but an enormous market crash occurred before demand caught up. The critical question today is whether current AI hyperscalers are overbuilding physical infrastructure relative to where true end-user demand will land five or six years down the road.
Sykes acknowledges that it is impossible to know definitively whether current infrastructure commitments outstrip future demand. However, he highlights a massive structural difference between the two eras: the balance sheet quality of the financiers. The 2000–2001 dot-com infrastructure wave was predominantly underwritten by speculative venture capital and debt-laden telecom startups. In stark contrast, today’s AI capex build-out is self-funded by the most profitable, cash-generative technology platforms in human history—monoliths that enjoyed "hundreds of billions of dollars of free cash flow" before deploying it into this generational hardware cycle.
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`24:41` Interlude: Bloomberg Tech Minute on Generative Music and Suno
A brief news broadcast highlights Suno, an AI music generation platform that allows users to produce songs in any musical genre from simple text prompts. Users can supply their own lyrics or let the tool generate them, upload audio samples, or rely on synthetic vocal models.
While the majority of user-generated songs remain obscure, certain viral hits have exploded across social media—most notably a TikTok trend where users feed embarrassing text messages from wild nights out into Suno to generate fully orchestrated gospel ballads. The platform has attracted venture interest and substantial valuations, but it faces significant headwinds from legacy music labels, rights holders, and recording artists over copyright infringement, uncompensated training datasets, and questions over whether synthetic music holds lasting cultural staying power.
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`26:45` Enterprise AI Adoption: The 2% EPS Reality vs. Internal Transformation
Returning to the festival stage, the hosts challenge the prevailing narrative on enterprise AI adoption, proposing that genuine operational integration is practically at "zero"—arguing that handing employees generic subscriptions to tools like ChatGPT or Claude is little more than a "glorified search" engine rather than true workflow transformation.
Sykes directly pushes back with empirical data: real enterprise adoption is not zero, but rather sits precisely at 2%. According to Goldman Sachs' internal corporate earnings analysis, roughly 2% of public companies have formally reported a measurable, positive impact on their earnings per share (EPS) attributable to AI deployment.
Beyond that strict financial benchmark, Sykes points out that between 20% and 30% of companies have actively rolled out enterprise-wide strategies to embed AI across their operational pipelines. At Goldman Sachs itself, the internal transformation is already pronounced: the youngest cohorts of investment banking analysts operate as digital natives, constructing intricate prompt libraries and handling sophisticated task capacities that were unimaginable just twelve months earlier. Rather than replacing human judgment, these tools allow teams to explore novel problem sets and accelerate analytical timelines.
- **EPS attribution:** Exactly 2% of analyzed public companies currently document a positive, bottom-line EPS contribution from AI in their financial earnings reports. - **Strategic rollout:** Between 20% and 30% of enterprises have formalized operational AI roadmaps across their organizational workflows.
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`28:40` AI's Role in Investment Banking and M&A Dealmaking
When asked how AI transforms investment banking specifically—beyond having junior analysts generate polished pitch decks, clean Excel models, or screen database targets—Sykes emphasizes the enduring human core of high-stakes advisory work. M&A is, at its root, a trust-based relationship business. Corporate boards and CEOs turn to bankers not merely for raw computational output, but for high-level counsel from trusted advisers who can read complex industry dynamics.
The true artistry of an M&A practitioner lies in the capacity for "synthesizing independent variables"—weighing macro headwinds, regulatory scrutiny, corporate cultures, board personalities, and strategic synergies simultaneously. Sykes argues that AI will not replace dealmakers who possess this gift; instead, it will act as a powerful cognitive amplifier. Bankers skilled at synthesizing variables will leverage AI to test hypotheses faster, arrive at tactical conclusions more rapidly, and bring far more imaginative solutions to the negotiating table.
`30:00` The Two Futures of AI in Media: Commoditization vs. IP Force Multiplication
Gene Sykes reflects on how artificial intelligence is transforming analytical work and advisory services. Rather than magically making professionals smarter, AI provides immediate access to broader and higher-quality information, encouraging users to stress-test their initial conclusions by asking counter-questions. In his view, having the tools to rapidly interrogate data builds genuine conviction and superior judgment, which will permanently reshape how advisers formulate guidance and meet client expectations.
The conversation turns to the creative industries, where Joe Weisenthal outlines two diametrically opposed visions for generative AI. In the first scenario, media creation becomes thoroughly democratized and commoditized: when anyone can generate high-production video from their home office, traditional media loses its scarcity value, making obsolete the massive physical lots that took Hollywood decades to build. In the contrasting scenario, AI acts as an exponential force multiplier for established names and intellectual property—raising the possibility that an actor like Tom Cruise might license multiple digital likenesses to star in ten films at once.
Sykes notes that an executive's reaction to this technological shift depends largely on self-confidence. Incumbents in sectors like the music industry feel deeply anxious about "bandit AI" scraping and upending intellectual property that took decades of seasoning to construct, directing their legal energy toward protecting existing licenses from unauthorized exploitation. Conversely, forward-leaning artists and creators view AI as an unprecedented creative amplifier, unlocking musical arrangements, themes, and audiovisual experiences they previously lacked the technical capability or budget to execute on their own.
```mermaid flowchart TD accTitle: Divergent Industry Responses to Generative AI accDescr: Chart illustrating incumbent defensiveness versus creator adoption in the face of AI. subgraph Incumbents["Industry Incumbents"] A["Seasoned Catalogs & Traditional IP"] --> B["Threat of 'Bandit AI' Misuse"] B --> C["Focus on Legal Protections & Licensing"] end subgraph Creators["New & Confident Creators"] D["Creative Concepts & Novel Themes"] --> E["AI as Force Multiplier & Tool"] E --> F["Expanded Output & Vivid Entertainment"] end ```
`32:15` The Enduring Value of Back Catalogs and the Lesson of ByteDance
Asked whether content libraries and back catalogs are gaining or losing value in an era flooded with synthetic media, Sykes firmly argues that their worth will continue to climb. While financial buyers have spent the past decade aggressively securitizing catalog cash flows, Sykes believes that the psychological pull of familiarity and proven audience appreciation will become even more prized amid content saturation. Rather than displacing legacy media, AI will identify novel applications and formats for existing IP, pulsing material to consumers in customized, appealing ways that avoid feeling like an invasive barrage.
To illustrate how transformative algorithmic curation can be, Sykes cites ByteDance and TikTok as early pioneers of modern AI-driven engagement. He points out that the recommendation engines originally architected by Zhang Yiming a decade ago represent a landmark business achievement: building a product out of China that proved so uniquely compelling and positive in its consumer hook that audiences worldwide actively embraced it. When Joe wonders whether entertainment agents in Los Angeles are already pitching talent on voice-cloning deals to multiply output tenfold, Sykes confirms that this push is well underway, with creators being urged to step outside their comfort zones to chase massive upside.
- **Content Securitization:** Over the past decade, financial institutions have increasingly treated seasoned content catalogs as stable yield assets by packaging their cash flows into securities. - **ByteDance Precedent:** Sykes highlights founder Zhang Yiming's development of TikTok's recommendation engine as an early blueprint for how algorithms can pulse media content so effectively that consumers feel entertained rather than overwhelmed.
`34:45` The M&A Window: Why Corporate Boards Are Pro-Deal Right Now
Drawing on his experience advising on major mergers and acquisitions since the 1980s, Sykes assesses whether today's dealmaking climate is flashing late-cycle warning signs. He clarifies that corporate leadership is not currently caught in an irrational speculative frenzy, but rather driven by an intense strategic appetite. Executives and boards are pursuing transactions they could not have conceived of five years ago because they perceive a rare, fleeting window of opportunity.
Sykes stresses that favorable dealmaking environments are never a permanent state of affairs. Corporate decision-makers understand that open financial markets can tighten quickly and that regulatory review regimes can shift toward aggressive hostility without warning. Because boards recognize that this hospitable window could slam shut at any moment, the prevailing boardroom bias has swung heavily toward being pro-deal, compelling leadership teams to execute while conditions permit.
`36:30` The Myth of the "Merger of Equals": Why Every M Is Really an A
Joe raises a fundamental question about deal terminology, recalling an M&A practitioner who bluntly asserted that true mergers no longer exist—that in practice, every transaction is simply an acquisition. Joe points back to historic mega-mergers like the union of Citigroup and Travelers, asking whether the concept of an equal partnership was ever real or merely public relations framing.
Sykes demystifies the label, explaining that the term "merger" is essentially a diplomatic fiction deployed when two combining entities happen to be roughly the same size. Splitting board seats down the middle and dividing executive roles between both legacy management teams are tactical concessions designed to get a transaction across the finish line, allowing each CEO to reassure their shareholders that they either extracted or merged at a compelling premium. However, Sykes emphasizes that this shared governance structure never lasts: within roughly twelve months of closing, corporate gravity takes over, leadership realigns, and actual decision-making power consolidates into a single set of hands.
```mermaid flowchart LR accTitle: The Lifecycle of a Merger of Equals accDescr: How an initial balanced merger consolidates into a single-led acquisition over twelve months. subgraph DayZero["Day 0: The Diplomatic 'Merger'"] direction TB A["Company A (50% Board)"] B["Company B (50% Board)"] C["Shared Leadership & Dual Management"] end subgraph YearOne["Month 12+: Operational Reality"] direction TB D["Consolidated Decision-Making"] E["Single Dominant Leadership Group"] F["De Facto Acquisition Dynamics"] end DayZero --> YearOne ```
`38:00` Post-Interview Banter: Selling LA 2028 and Odd Lots Sign-Off
Following the live session at the Future Proof Festival, Joe and Tracy unpack Gene Sykes' arguments for the Los Angeles 2028 Olympic Games. Tracy confesses that while staging an event of that magnitude still sounds like an inevitable logistical mess, Sykes delivered an exceptionally persuasive pitch—admitting with a laugh that as a top Goldman Sachs banker, delivering an airtight sales pitch is precisely what he gets paid to do.
The hosts debate how they will personally experience the 2028 Games. Joe jokes that he plans to stay home and watch the broadcast on television to directly support the air-rights financing Sykes described earlier. Tracy counters that she is open to attending in person by hunting for inexpensive tickets to fringe competitions like kayaking or table tennis, leaving high-priced marquee events like track and field to the high rollers. The episode concludes with the co-hosts thanking the festival audience, running through their social media handles, and promoting the newsletter and Discord community.
- **LA 2028 Attendance Strategy:** Tracy contemplates buying budget-friendly seats for ping pong or kayaking to avoid the exorbitant prices of track and field. - **Broadcast Support:** Joe quips that watching from the couch is his personal contribution to funding the Olympic air-rights revenue model.
## Notable quotes > `02:24` You could have gone a little bit further and you could have been in California. And it's like it was right there. And the question I have is, why doesn't everyone live here? — Joe Weisenthal
> `04:45` I'm not Sydney Sweeney, like sports, sports, sports, sports — Tracy Alloway
> `07:15` four in the morning, the best of times. — Gene Sykes
> `10:00` You already have accommodation, Joe. You should just do it. — Gene Sykes
> `10:00` would have been careful about calling the president for a red card violation — Gene Sykes
> `14:48` If you want to see the very, very best in sports, in any sport, at one place all at a very compressed period of time, it's a premium priced experience. — Gene Sykes
> `14:48` the biggest event in the history of the world. — Gene Sykes
> `17:35` the biggest M&A year in the history of the world — Gene Sykes
> `20:00` almost too big for anybody to buy. — Gene Sykes
> `20:00` non-trivial chance that our technology wipes out the entirety of humanity.
> `23:05` hundreds of billions of dollars of free cash flow — Gene Sykes
> `26:45` glorified search
> `28:40` synthesizing independent variables — Gene Sykes
> `30:00` bandit AI — Gene Sykes
## Mentioned Gene Sykes, Tracy Alloway, Joe Weisenthal, Goldman Sachs, International Olympic Committee (IOC), United States Olympic & Paralympic Committee (USOPC), LA28 (2028 Summer Olympic and Paralympic Games), 1984 Summer Olympics, FIFA World Cup, UCLA, NBC, Coca-Cola, Visa, Samsung, Google, Uber, Starbucks, Comcast, Universal, Disney, Pixar, OpenAI, Anthropic, SpaceX, Suno, ByteDance, TikTok, Zhang Yiming, Tom Cruise, Alysa Liu, Sydney Sweeney, Future Proof Festival, PayPal, ChatGPT, Cincinnati Insurance, Citigroup, Travelers
## Video description <p data-prosemirror-content-type="node" data-prosemirror-node-name="paragraph" data-prosemirror-node-block="true" data-pm-slice="1 1 []">We're in an era of megadeals, with Goldman Sachs reporting a record year for big deal volumes as companies scramble to compete with AI. Gene Sykes has seen multiple deal cycles come and go over his multi-decade career. The co-head of mergers and acquisitions has worked on famous transactions like Comcast's purchase of Universal and Disney's buyout of Pixar. In addition to being "the most-influential M&A banker you've never heard of," as New York magazine has put it, he has also spearheaded Los Angeles's successful bid to bring the Olympic Games to the city in 2028. In this conversation, recorded live at the Future Proof Festival in Huntington Beach, California, we discuss how a city pays for a big event like the Olympics, and parallels between the early 2000s TMT environment and now.</p> <p data-prosemirror-content-type="node" data-prosemirror-node-name="paragraph" data-prosemirror-node-block="true">Read more:<br data-prosemirror-content-type="node" data-prosemirror-node-name="hardBreak" data-prosemirror-node-inline="true"><a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-09-17/port-of-la-foiled-around-120-million-cyberattacks-last-month?utm_medium=referral&utm_source=podcast&utm_campaign=odd_lots&utm_content=article" data-prosemirror-content-type="mark" data-prosemirror-mark-name="link">Port of LA Foiled Around 120 Million Cyberattacks Last Month</a><br data-prosemirror-content-type="node" data-prosemirror-node-name="hardBreak" data-prosemirror-node-inline="true"><a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-09-18/goldman-s-snider-says-fears-of-us-earnings-bubble-are-misplaced?utm_medium=referral&utm_source=podcast&utm_campaign=odd_lots&utm_content=article" data-prosemirror-content-type="mark" data-prosemirror-mark-name="link">Goldman’s Snider Says Fears of US Earnings Bubble Are Misplaced</a></p> <p data-prosemirror-content-type="node" data-prosemirror-node-name="paragraph" data-prosemirror-node-block="true">Only <a href="http://Bloomberg.com" data-inline-card="" data-card-data="">http://Bloomberg.com</a> subscribers can get the Odd Lots newsletter in their inbox each week, plus unlimited access to the site and app. Subscribe at <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/subscriptions/oddlots?in_source=oddlotspodcast" data-prosemirror-content-type="mark" data-prosemirror-mark-name="link">bloomberg.com/subscriptions/oddlots</a></p> <p data-prosemirror-content-type="node" data-prosemirror-node-name="paragraph" data-prosemirror-node-block="true"><a href="http://bloomberg.com/subscriptions/oddlots" data-prosemirror-content-type="mark" data-prosemirror-mark-name="link">Subscribe to the Odd Lots Newsletter</a><br data-prosemirror-content-type="node" data-prosemirror-node-name="hardBreak" data-prosemirror-node-inline="true"><strong data-prosemirror-content-type="mark" data-prosemirror-mark-name="strong">Join the conversation:</strong> <a href="https://discord.gg/oddlots" data-prosemirror-content-type="mark" data-prosemirror-mark-name="link">discord.gg/oddlots</a></p><p>See <a href="https://omnystudio.com/listener">omnystudio.com/listener</a> for privacy information.</p>
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