Big banks' investment banking income soared in the second quarter, powered in part by SpaceX's historic IPO.
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In the three months that ended on June 30, Bank of America's investment banking fees jumped 50% year-over-year. JPMorganChase's investment banking revenue shot up 45% from last year. And Goldman Sachs said its investment banking backlog reached its highest level in five years.
One thing those three banks had in common last quarter was SpaceX. Goldman, JPMorgan and Bank of America were all involved in underwriting the company's initial public offering, which raised $85.7 billion, making it the biggest IPO in history.
Goldman served as the SpaceX IPO's "lead left" bookrunner — the top underwriting position — while JPMorgan and BofA were among the joint bookrunners. In the second quarter of 2026, all three banks reaped the benefits.
"This was obviously a very robust quarter for IPO activity," Goldman CEO David Solomon said during the bank's earnings call.
And it wasn't just SpaceX. In general, the proceeds raised by American IPOs more than doubled from the second quarter of 2025, driven largely by AI and semiconductor companies, according to S&P.
In the second quarter of 2026, Goldman reported net earnings of $6.63 billion, surging 78% from last year.
The bank attributed the steep growth to its Global Banking & Markets unit, which netted $15.52 billion for the second quarter of 2026. Goldman's investment banking fees were up 55% from last year, totaling $3.40 billion over the past three months.
Equity underwriting net revenues were $985 million — up 130% year-over-year and 84% quarter-over-quarter. Chief Financial Officer Denis Coleman attributed the surge to "robust deal volumes," specifically citing Goldman's role as top underwriter on the "marquee mandates" for SpaceX's IPO and Alphabet's equity raise.
"We remain optimistic on the investment banking outlook as strategic dialogue remains robust," Coleman said on Tuesday.
Meanwhile, BofA's global banking unit, which includes investment banking, enjoyed an unusually strong quarter. Net income for the division was just over $2 billion, up 20% from the same period last year.
"Global banking delivered strong results in the second quarter, reflecting … near-record investment banking performance," among other factors, BofA Chief Financial Officer Alastair Borthwick said during Tuesday's earnings call.
For the whole company, investment banking fees reached $2.1 billion, up from $1.4 billion in last year's second quarter.
At America's largest bank, JPMorgan CFO Jeremy Barnum cited "major IPOs" as one factor that contributed to an exceptionally strong quarter for the firm. The bank reported a 30% increase in its investment banking fees and a 45% increase in overall investment banking revenue.
Jamie Dimon, JPMorgan's longtime CEO, avoided affirming the repeatability of the firm's results from this quarter. He added that the bank examined whether this quarter's results were "particularly elevated as a result of some of the large high-profile IPOs and other capital raisings."
While analysts probed at how bullish the firm anticipates being, Dimon said the more important thing to observe is that the market as a whole has been "clearly extremely risk-on" and "quite supportive." Still, Dimon said he finds it "hard to imagine" that the "particular set of things that happened in equities this quarter" will repeat themselves.
Meanwhile, Solomon framed Goldman's IPO windfall in the context of the broader tech boom from AI, which he said was likely to "ebb and flow." There could be "bumps and recalibrations" in the next six to 18 months, he said, adding that there is "a lot of uncertainty" around how tech infrastructure will be built and financed.
"Ultimately, you will have a recalibration, a reset, a drawdown and then a further acceleration," Solomon said. "That's what the path generally looks like."
Nevertheless, there was no denying the tailwind investment banking has enjoyed lately.
"Clearly, the large deals contributed meaningfully to this quarter's results," Dimon said.
