Changes in US stocks | Nvidia (NVDA.US) rose more than 2% Goldman Sachs: AI profits will continue to drive the US stock market

The Zhitong Finance App learned that on Monday, Nvidia (NVDA.US) opened low and rose rapidly. As of press release, it had risen more than 2% to $205.57. According to the news, despite recent sharp fluctuations in technology stocks and momentum assets, which have raised market concerns about the “bursting of the AI speculation bubble,” Goldman Sachs chief strategist Ben Snyder said in a newly released report that investors need not be too alarmed. Goldman Sachs believes that the current pullback in US stocks is a typical concentration squeeze and consolidation, and that unusually strong corporate profit fundamentals are still the core engine supporting the US stock bull market.

Goldman Sachs research shows that as of July 31, more than two-thirds (in terms of market value) of companies in the S&P 500 index had announced second-quarter results. Of these, 64% of companies had profits that exceeded expectations by at least one standard deviation. Excluding the one-time investment income of individual tech giants, the overall profit of the S&P 500 index increased 26% year over year (up to 45% with one-time income); the profit growth rate of median companies also reached 12%, far exceeding expectations of 9%. Meanwhile, AI infrastructure-related companies contributed about one-third of the S&P 500 index's profit growth in the second quarter, and this ratio is expected to rise to more than 50% from the second half of 2026 to 2027. Giants such as Alphabet, Amazon, Microsoft, Nvidia, and Broadcom remain major revenue contributors.

Goldman Sachs stressed that as hedge funds and ETF investors drastically cut leverage, the risk of market deleveraging has been clearly released. Although the capital expenditure of the top five tech giants reached US$182 billion in the second quarter (and raised US$101 billion through debt and equity to fill the cash flow gap), this is not an early warning sign; on the contrary, it reflects the market's strong confidence that the AI business can bring higher revenue growth.

The report concluded that AI trading may still experience severe industry rotation and short-term shocks in the future, but as long as the fundamentals of corporate profit growth do not deteriorate substantially, the US stock bull market will still have solid support.