On Main Street, Goldman Sachs makes a big bet on AI

Artificial intelligence is already a huge business for Wall Street.But how is it playing on Main Street?Goldman Sachs is spending big in an attempt to ensure AI catches on.

The bank announced Thursday that it has launched the Small Business AI Institute as part of a $500 million expansion of its 10,000 Small Businesses, a program geared toward educating and supporting entrepreneurs.It said it would partner with Google, Anthropic, OpenAI and Meta to provide AI training and tools to entrepreneurs.

“You’ve got to embrace new technology always, because if you’re not embracing it, trying to figure out how it can make your businesses better, there’s a real chance that you can fall behind,” Goldman Sachs CEO David Solomon said in an exclusive interview for NBC News’ Business in America series.It’s a pivotal moment for the AI wave and its financial backers, including Goldman.The technology is broadly available to consumers, and U.S.

economic growth increasingly depends on the buildup of data centers.“We believe AI will create the greatest boom in entrepreneurship and small businesses that the world has ever seen,” Sam Altman, CEO and co-founder of OpenAI, said in an announcement from Goldman Sachs.

“This is an incredible moment for anyone with an idea for a new endeavor because the gap between imagining it and bringing it to life is getting much smaller.”Yet the growth that AI is already driving has also helped push up prices for inflation-weary Americans.Anger at data centers is a rare point of bipartisan agreement among voters, and the midterm elections are days away.In the finance world, critics say AI is an investment bubble that could burst and potentially wipe out companies and jobs.

Cracks are forming in the AI trade in markets after Big Tech firms drove much of stocks’ recent surge to record highs.Goldman Sachs, like much of Wall Street, is in the thick of it all.The bank’s share price has approximately tripled over the past three yea...