Few pandemic-era bets will have paid off quite as nicely as nabbing a house in a boomtown such as Atlanta, Austin or Miami with a two-point-something percent mortgage rate—and holding on as its value soared in the subsequent years. People wanted sun, space and an escape from covid killjoys. These cities offered it. More
Runwise, a New York-based technology company, invented its own hardware/software platform to eliminate overheating in large buildings. It recently expanded that to cooling.
The company combines future weather algorithms with a wireless temperature sensor network that speaks to a Runwise central control system.
The tech is now installed in more than 10,000 buildings across 10 states, with roughly 1,000 customers, including major real estate owner-operators.
Runwise co-founders (L-R) Jeff Carleton, Lee Hoffman and Mike Cook.
Courtesy of Runwise
A version of this article first appeared in the CNBC Property Play newsletter with Diana Olick. Property Play covers new and evolving opportunities for the real estate investor, from individuals to venture capitalists, private equity funds, family offices, institutional investors and large public companies. Sign up to receive future editions, straight to your inbox.
As brutally high temperatures bake the nation this summer, cooling is becoming increasingly critical across commercial real estate property portfolios. Landlords are balancing soaring demand with rising costs, putting energy efficiency front and center.
The trouble is that most large building systems essentially run blind. Temperatures are set centrally, so they don’t know if certain parts of the building are running too hot or too cold. That’s why so many office workers sit at their desks wearing sweaters in the summer and then feel overheated in the winter.
Now, new technology is taking on the challenge. Runwise, a New York-based technology company, invented its own hardware/software platform to eliminate overheating in large buildings. It recently expanded that to cooling.
“We’re trying to hit these climate goals, yet right in our literal building we’re throwing money away every time you run a boiler when it doesn’t need to run, you’re wasting money and you’re producing carbon emissions unnecessarily that really make nobody comfortable,” said Jeff Carleton, co-founder and CEO of Runwise.
The Runwise desktop app.
Courtesy of Runwise
The company combines future weather algorithms with a wireless temperature sensor network that speaks to a Runwise central control system. That control analyzes the data and then operates the system more efficiently.
For example, a 100,000-square-foot building may have just one boiler, but it needs multiple temperature inputs. Runwise would put in 20 to 25 sensors, which take an average based on the user setting and future weather, and then figure out how often to run the boiler.
The tech is now installed in more than 10,000 buildings across 10 states, with roughly 1,000 customers, including major real estate owner-operators such as Related, Equity Residential, FirstService Residential, MTA, Port Authority, National Grid, Rudin, LeFrak, UDR, Douglas Elliman and Akam. Runwise claims to have collectively saved more than $100 million in energy costs to date.
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The startup recently announced a $55 million Series B funding round led by Menlo Ventures, bringing its total funding to $79 million. Other backers include Nuveen Real Estate, Munich Re Ventures, MassMutual Ventures, Multiplier Capital, Soma Capital and Fifth Wall.
Carleton said Runwise will use the additional funding to grow the business nationwide and, of course, to incorporate artificial intelligence into its systems.
“It’s only going to become more and more ingrained in what we build, as we collect data from more and more buildings and build more advanced models on how to run them more efficiently,” he said. “We plan to use AI to continuously make our algorithms more efficient.” More
Consumers’ obsession with protein is leading restaurants to lean into the trend to boost sales.
This year, 28.4% of U.S. restaurant menus call out “protein,” up from 5.9% a decade ago, according to Datassential.
Chains like Starbucks are adding protein-packed options, while Chick-fil-A and Panda Express are highlighting existing menu items that fit the trend.
Starbucks Protein Drink
Courtesy: Starbucks
Restaurant chains are joining in on the protein frenzy, hoping to encourage diners to pay more for extra macronutrients during a time when many consumers aren’t spending as much.
From “gym bros” to users of GLP-1 drugs like Ozempic, many Americans are trying to add more protein to their diets, with the goal of building or maintaining their muscle mass and feeling more satiated after meals. Moreover, diet trends that don’t emphasize protein intake, such as the ketogenic diet, have fallen out of favor.
“A lot of younger consumers are more proactive about their health habits, so they’re looking for ways to support health now but also to support their health in the future,” said Julia Mills, a food and drink analyst for market research firm Mintel. “Generation Alpha, Gen Z, millennials — these consumers are very active on social media, so they’re constantly being fed this message that you need more protein, and protein helps you gain muscle and makes you stronger.”
Roughly a third of consumers said they loved high protein in the second quarter of 2025, up from 24% three years ago, according to Datassential, which tracks restaurant menus and consumer preferences.
The trend has fueled a protein takeover in grocery store aisles, from protein-packed Eggo waffles to Khloe Kardashian’s Khloud protein popcorn.
But it’s also hitting the menus of restaurants that are seeking ways to encourage diners to pay for premium food and drinks.
Take Starbucks, for example. The coffee giant said in late July that it will roll out a cold foam packed with 15 grams of protein later this year; the regular cold foam add-on typically costs customers an extra $1.25 per drink. The new foam comes as the chain’s U.S. sales have been shrinking for the past year as coffee drinkers brew their java at home or seek out trendier options.
Rival Dutch Bros launched a protein coffee in early 2024 and charges customers an extra $1 for the customization. The menu addition fueled strong same-store sales growth and profits for the upstart chain.
‘Never been vilified’
Eateries are seeking to attract diners like Jared Hutkowski, a 42-year-old director of brokerage in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. He works out six days a week and tries to hit his daily protein goal to improve his physique and overall health. When he dines out, he tries to maximize his protein, although he sometimes goes for pizza anyway.
“The biggest factor is what I am in the mood for that day, and then I normally try and select a meal that has a least a serving of some type of protein in it,” Hutkowski said.
This year, 28.4% of U.S. restaurant menus call out “protein,” up from 5.9% a decade ago, according to Datassential. And the trend looks like it has staying power. Datassential predicts that by 2029, more than 40% of eateries will highlight protein on their menus.
“Protein is one of those things that’s never been vilified, because no one’s ever said that eating too much protein can be bad for you,” Mintel’s Mills said.
In the short term, consuming more protein than your body needs likely won’t cause health issues, but in the long term, it could cause kidney problems, according to Diane Han, a registered dietitian based in San Francisco and the founder of Woking Balance Wellness.
The recommended daily amount of protein intake varies by body weight but is roughly 46 grams for women and 56 grams for men, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
For restaurants, protein’s step change happened several years ago. In 2021, protein only had a menu penetration of 11.5%; by 2022, more than a quarter of restaurant menus used the term, based on Datassential data. That year, Dine Brands’ IHOP, for example, introduced pancakes with 18 grams of protein per flapjack.
Fast-casual eateries are the restaurant segment most likely to call out protein on their menus, thanks to the common practice of asking customers to pick their protein or offering to double their portion, according to Datassential.
Fast-casual salad chain Sweetgreen introduced a line of “protein plates” in late 2023 as part of an effort to introduce more hearty options for dinner customers. The menu addition has helped the company grow its dinner business from 35% of sales to about 40%, executives said in March.
Many restaurants are also leaning into U.S. consumers’ desire for convenience. Accessibility may be why Datassential found that consumers tend to prefer protein-packed beverages.
For Smoothie King, protein has been a menu staple since its founding more than 50 years ago. But in October, the chain took one step further, launching a menu aimed at consumers who take GLP-1 drugs for weight loss or diabetes. The rapid weight loss that can occur from the medications can cause muscle mass to drop, so doctors often advise patients to increase their protein intake to maintain their muscle.
“It’s a convenient, on-the-go way to get in your protein that you’re looking for in your diet,” said Lori Primavera, Smoothie King’s vice president of research and development and product marketing.
Playing up protein
An employee prepares a burrito bowl at a Chipotle Mexican Grill Inc. restaurant in Louisville, Kentucky.
Luke Sharrett | Bloomberg | Getty Images
Many restaurants are also choosing to highlight existing protein-packed options, rather than adding new menu items that would slow down kitchens or add to much complexity to their operations.
For example, Panda Express introduced its own protein plates earlier this year. The line, created in partnership with a registered dietitian, includes pre-existing menu items but packages them as a balanced meal, highlighting protein and fiber content.
Chipotle Mexican Grill employed a similar strategy back in 2019 when it introduced “lifestyle bowls,” marketed to fit different dietary goals, like the paleo diet or offering double protein.
Likewise, in July, Chick-fil-A put the spotlight on its own high-protein options in a company blog, highlighting its grilled nuggets and the Cool Wrap, which features a grilled chicken breast, cheese and lettuce in a tortilla.
But for the eateries that want to add new menu items, nachos with a choice of protein, restaurant-made protein bars and egg dishes that highlight high protein content are all increasingly popular options, according to Datassential trendologist Claire Conaghan.
Eggs are one reason why breakfast, brunch and lunch eatery First Watch has always been “protein forward,” CEO Chris Tomasso told CNBC. The chain hasn’t adjusted its menu specifically to address consumers’ demand for more protein, but TikTok influencers have highlighted how to order a high-protein meal when visiting its restaurants.
“We hope that continues to be a trend because we’re right down the middle of the fairway on that,” Tomasso said.
Of course, protein isn’t the only way to win over health-conscious consumers. Hutkowski said his primary issue with eating at restaurants is that most of the food is cooked in oils, butter and heavy greases that rapidly add to his intake of fats for the day.
“A restaurant finding cleaner ways to cook would be much more attractive to me than overly loaded protein dishes,” he said. More
There are a few ways to prevent your cell phone bill from increasing much while traveling internationally, experts said.
Among their biggest tips: Consider a T-Mobile cell plan, buy an eSIM or rely solely on Wi-Fi networks.
Alina Rudya/bell Collective | Digitalvision | Getty Images
I didn’t think much of my daily cell phone use during a vacation to Paris in May.
But by the end of the five-day trip, I’d amassed almost $50 in extra charges — for fairly routine tasks like checking restaurant hours and menus, or researching neighborhood attractions after long, meandering walks.
While not a bank-breaking sum of money, it was high enough to frustrate this personal finance reporter and make me rethink phone use (and the value of better pre-planning) for my next excursion.
Luckily, there are many ways to potentially reduce or eliminate extra cell phone costs when traveling outside the U.S., experts said.
“There’s no one single way to save money using your smartphone when you’re overseas,” said John Breyault, vice president of public policy, telecommunications and fraud at the National Consumers League, a consumer advocacy group.
The best strategy depends on how travelers plan to use their phone during a trip, he said.
Consider T-Mobile for basic use
Kathrin Ziegler | Digitalvision | Getty Images
My additional charges resulted from my provider’s international phone package. My carrier, AT&T, charges a flat, daily rate of $12 per day for international cell use, similar to other providers. I incurred that daily charge each day I opted to use the international cell network instead of Wi-Fi to look up directions or restaurant hours.
While many carriers typically charge a per-day fee or a “hefty surcharge,” some T-Mobile plans cover international roaming, said Tim Leffel, author of “The World’s Cheapest Destinations” and “A Better Life for Half the Price.”
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As such, switching to T-Mobile as your cell provider may make financial sense for those who travel abroad often — especially those who don’t rely on their phones for more than the occasional text or data usage during trips, he said.
“If this is your plan, awesome,” Leffel said. “You’re ready to travel the world without missing a beat.”
There are limitations, though.
Not all T-Mobile plans cover international roaming charges. One longtime T-Mobile customer reportedly racked up $143,000 of charges during a 2023 trip to Switzerland because of international data roaming. (The company later reportedly withdrew those costs.)
While its international plans generally include unlimited texts and an allotment of high-speed data when overseas, phone calls may come with an additional price tag. (One workaround: All calls made over Wi-Fi to the U.S., Mexico and Canada are free, according to T-Mobile’s site.)
T-Mobile plans also don’t work in every country, so customers should be wary to avoid extra fees in such places, experts said.
Additionally, such plans may not be well-suited for digital nomads (they’re not intended for extended use abroad, according to T-Mobile), or for heavy data users, Leffel said.
Check what your cell plan already offers, and compare costs and services before making any changes, Breyault said.
Use an eSIM
D3sign | Moment | Getty Images
People who intend to use a lot of data away from Wi-Fi networks may be better off buying a SIM card, Breyault said.
Replacing your phone’s current SIM with an international one essentially turns your device into a local phone, according to the Federal Communications Commission.
Many people can use a digital eSIM service today instead of replacing their phone’s physical SIM card, experts said.
It’s generally a cheaper option compared to many carriers’ international phone packages, experts said. Pre-paid SIMs let travelers more easily manage their budgets, they said.
“Now you can just download an app and buy as much data as you need, generally $1 or less per day for usage spread out over a week or a month,” Leffel said. “If you run out of data, you just buy more instantly.”
He recommends sticking with more established providers like Saily, GigSky or Airalo to be safe. They generally work anywhere in the world, he said.
Many people opt for data-only SIM plans and save any calls or texts for Wi-Fi, he said.
One caveat: Travelers may need to “unlock” their phone for an eSIM to work, Breyault said. This would ensure the phone isn’t locked to a particular carrier. In such cases, customers should reach out to their provider before traveling to ask if they can unlock the phone, he said.
Also, be aware that your phone number may temporarily switch to a local number when using a new SIM, experts said.
Use Wi-Fi when possible
Natalia Lebedinskaia | Moment | Getty Images
OK, yes, this may sound obvious.
But there’s no denying that leveraging free Wi-Fi — perhaps at a hotel, restaurant or otherwise — can save you money.
You can use Wi-Fi even when your phone is on Airplane mode, which ensures you won’t get dinged with international roaming charges.
Experts have some hacks to help limit your need for cellular data when away from Wi-Fi.
Among the top tips: Download an offline map on Google Maps before traveling. This will allow you to navigate an area via GPS even without internet. There are some drawbacks: It may be difficult to find details like the nearest museum or restaurant and their respective hours on the fly without internet, for example.
Download any helpful article PDFs or guidebooks ahead of time to limit your need for the internet while on the go, Leffel said.
Connecting to public Wi-Fi networks may pose a digital security threat, so avoid conducting sensitive transactions like banking over Wi-Fi, Breyault said. In such cases, consider sticking with a cellular network, which is more secure, he said.
I returned from another trip last week, to Namibia and Botswana, during which I adopted a strict policy of putting my phone on Airplane mode and, if necessary, occasionally using public Wi-Fi.
My extra cell fees? $0. More
Sweetgreen shares dropped 23% on Friday after the salad chain cut its 2025 outlook for the second quarter in a row.
The company said it saw issues with its loyalty program, weak consumer sentiment, tariff headwinds and store challenges.
CEO Jonathan Neman said only one-third of restaurants are performing at or above standards, while the remaining two-thirds “represent a meaningful opportunity for improvement.”
People walk past a Sweetgreen restaurant in Manhattan.
Jeenah Moon | The Washington Post | Getty Images
Sweetgreen shares dropped 23% on Friday after the salad chain cut its 2025 outlook for the second quarter in a row, citing issues with its loyalty program, weak consumer sentiment, tariff headwinds and store challenges.
For the full-year 2025, Sweetgreen now expects revenue of between $700 million and $715 million, down from its May prediction of $740 million to $760 million and its February outlook of $760 million to $780 million.
It also projects negative same-store sales for the full year, estimating declines of between 4% and 6%, down from its original outlook of single-digit growth. Restaurant-level profit margin for 2025 is expected to be 200 basis points lower than Sweetgreen’s latest outlook in May. That includes a 40 basis-point hit due to the effect of tariffs.
On a Thursday call with analysts, CEO Jonathan Neman said Sweetgreen had a “really, really rough quarter.”
He said both external headwinds and internal actions played a role in the performance, including “a more cautious consumer environment starting in April, lapping a tough comparison with last year’s successful steak launch and the transition of our new loyalty program at the beginning of the quarter.”
The company reported a second-quarter earnings and revenue miss, reporting a loss of 20 cents per share versus a loss of 12 cents expected by analysts surveyed by LSEG. Revenue came in at $186 million compared with the LSEG estimate of $192 million.
Same-store sales dropped 7.6% during the quarter, significantly underperforming the same quarter a year earlier when the company reported a same-store sales increase of 9.3%. Analysts were expecting a second-quarter decline of 5.5%, according to StreetAccount.
Executives said “loyalty headwinds” played a key role in the results. Neman said the transition from the Sweetgreen+ subscription program to a new program, SG Rewards, generated a 250 basis-point headwind to the company’s second-quarter same-store sales. He said Sweetgreen saw a falloff in revenue from that small but high-frequency cohort of Sweetgreen+ customers, but he said he believes the effect will be temporary.
Going forward, company leaders said they are focused on improving customer satisfaction and operations in stores.
Neman told investors on Thursday that only one-third of restaurants are performing at or above standards, while the remaining two-thirds “represent a meaningful opportunity for improvement.”
He said the company is aiming to improve operations through the leadership of its new chief operating officer, Jason Cochran, and the launch of a new program called Project One Best Way, focused on improving speed and food standards and increasing portion sizes.
Consumer sentiment has played a role in the company’s performance. Sweetgreen Chief Financial Officer Mitch Reback said pressure on consumer spending has persisted longer than expected.
“It’s pretty obvious that the consumer is not in a great place overall,” Neman said.
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President Donald Trump’s so-called “big beautiful bill” ends a $7,500 EV tax credit after Sept. 30.
Consumers are acting quickly to claim the tax credit before it disappears, according to analysts and sales data.
Halfpoint Images | Moment | Getty Images
Consumers are racing to buy electric vehicles before a fast-approaching deadline to claim tax credits worth up to $7,500, according to auto analysts.
Legislation championed by Republicans on Capitol Hill and signed by President Donald Trump in July eliminates the tax breaks — available for new, used and leased EVs — after Sept. 30.
The Biden-era Inflation Reduction Act had originally offered the tax breaks to consumers through 2032.
“We’re expecting Q3 may be [a] record for EV sales because of the tax incentives going away,” said Stephanie Valdez Streaty, a senior analyst at Cox Automotive.
“People are rushing out” to buy, she said.
‘Significant volume’ of EV sales
Consumers purchased nearly 130,100 new EVs in July, the second-highest monthly sales tally on record, behind roughly 136,000 sold in December, according to Cox Automotive data. The July figures represent a 26.4% increase from June and nearly 20% increase year-over-year, Streaty said.
The share of EV sales in July also accounted for about 9.1% of total sales of passenger vehicles that month, the largest monthly share on record, according to Cox.
“We’re seeing significant volume in new EVs,” said Liz Najman, director of market insights at Recurrent, an EV marketplace and data provider.
Meanwhile, there were nearly 36,700 used EVs sold in July, a record monthly high, Cox data shows.
Specific EV models — the Chevy Equinox EV, Honda Prologue and Hyundai IONIQ 5 — also saw record-breaking sales last month, Najman said.
There were 8,500 Equinox EVs sold in July, the highest monthly EV total in the U.S. for any model outside of Tesla, which is the market leader, Najman said.
(This comes as Tesla’s sales have declined for two consecutive quarters, by about 12% year-over-year in Q2 and 9% in Q1, according to Cox data.)
$7,500 tax credit puts EVs near price parity
The tax credits — worth up to $7,500 for new EVs and $4,000 for used EVs — aim to make EV purchases more financially enticing for consumers.
The EV tax breaks were one of many policies the Biden administration adopted to try try to cut U.S. greenhouse gas emissions. The transportation sector is the largest source of U.S. greenhouse gas emissions.
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EVs are “unambiguously better” for the environment than traditional cars with an internal combustion engine, according to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
However, while EVs tend to be cheaper over the lifecycle of car ownership relative to traditional gasoline vehicles, they generally carry a higher upfront cost, analysts said.
The average transaction price for all new passenger vehicles (aside from battery electric vehicles) in July was $48,078, according to Cox data.
The average for new EVs was $55,689, before any dealer incentives and tax credits, Cox said. If the purchase were to qualify for the full $7,500 tax credit, it’d be near price parity, around $48,189.
The price gap between EV and gasoline cars “no longer exists,” Tom Libby, an analyst at S&P Global, wrote in July. The disappearance of the federal tax credits “jeopardizes” price competitiveness, he wrote.
States and utilities may offer additional financial incentives for EVs, depending on where consumers live, analysts said.
EV dealers boost incentives
Maskot | Maskot | Getty Images
Dealers are also seeking to capitalize on the upcoming Sept. 30 deadline, stoking a sense of consumer urgency to boost sales, analysts said.
“$7,500 Federal Tax Credit Ending,” was in bold lettering at the top of Tesla’s home page as of early afternoon Friday. “Limited Inventory — Take Delivery Now,” the automaker wrote underneath.
Sept. 30 is the date by which consumers must take ownership of the car (essentially, be driving it off the lot) to qualify for an EV tax credit.
Beyond the tax breaks, dealers are also offering relatively generous financial benefits to entice consumers.
They provided about $9,800 of additional financial incentives, on average, to new-EV buyers in July, worth about 17.5% of the average transaction price, Cox data shows.
That share is the highest percentage dating to October 2017, which was before the “new era of EV adoption” when monthly sales volume was quite low, Streaty said.
EV sales are likely to “collapse” in the fourth quarter of 2025, once the tax credit expires and the market adjusts to a new financial reality, she said.
Used EVs are likely to be a bright spot in the near term, analysts said.
Growth has been accelerating, and most buyers today already don’t qualify for the $4,000 tax break.
“[A]pproximately one-third of used EVs qualified for the incentive anyway,” Cox Automotive wrote last month. “With availability growing and incentives for new EVs expected to fall, the used EV market may grow faster in the quarters ahead.” More
Bankrupt home goods chain Bed Bath & Beyond is coming back to life through its new owners and licensees.
The first brick and mortar Bed Bath & Beyond store to open since its liquidation launched in Nashville, Tennessee, on Friday with potentially dozens more openings to come.
Bed Bath & Beyond’s intellectual property was acquired by then-Overstock Inc. in 2023, which later rebranded to Beyond Inc. and licensed the name to The Brand House Collective.
Signage is displayed outside a permanently closed Bed Bath & Beyond retail store in Hawthorne, California, on May 1, 2023.
Patrick T. Fallon | AFP | Getty Images
Bed Bath & Beyond is back — kind of.
The bankrupt home goods chain is being resurrected by the owners and licensees of its intellectual property, which opened the first new Bed Bath & Beyond store in Nashville, Tennessee, on Friday with potentially dozens of more to come.
This time around, the store has a new name — Bed Bath & Beyond Home — and marks a “fresh start” for the beloved brand, said Amy Sullivan, the CEO of The Brand House Collective, the store’s operator.
“We’re proud to reintroduce one of retail’s most iconic names with the launch of Bed Bath & Beyond Home, beautifully reimagined for how families gather at home today,” Sullivan said in a news release. “With Bed Bath & Beyond Home we’re delivering on our mission to offer great brands, for any budget, in every room. It’s a powerful addition to our portfolio and a meaningful step forward in our transformation.”
In honor of the brand’s legacy, the new store will accept the brand’s famous 20% coupon, regardless of when it expired.
“We encourage guests to bring in their legacy Bed Bath & Beyond coupons which we will gladly honor,” the company said in a news release. “The coupon we all know and love is back and for those who need one, a fresh version will be waiting at the door.”
Bed Bath and Beyond 2.0 has been several years in the making and involved a rigmarole of corporate acquisitions and rebrandings. When the original Bed Bath and Beyond filed for bankruptcy in April 2023 following a string of corporate missteps, it struggled to find a buyer and ended up liquidating and selling off its business in parts. Overstock.com later bought the brand’s intellectual property, rebranded its business to Beyond Inc. and launched an online-only version of Bed Bath and Beyond.
What followed from there was a dizzying array of corporate deal-making. Ultimately, Beyond took an ownership stake in Kirkland’s Inc., a home decor chain with around 300 stores across the U.S., and gave it the exclusive license to develop and create Bed Bath & Beyond Home stores, as well as Buy Buy Baby stores.
Kirkland’s later rebranded to The Brand House Collective and plans to convert some of its existing Kirkland’s Home stores into more Bed Bath and Beyond shops. Friday’s launch in Nashville is the first of six planned for the market and, pending the results, it plans to convert around 75 additional stores through 2026.
The company said it chose Nashville for the launch because of its proximity to its corporate headquarters, which will allow it to “closely manage every detail and set the standard for future rollouts.”
While the relaunch is exciting for fans of the legacy brand, it comes at a difficult time for the home decor market. In many ways, Bed Bath & Beyond’s bankruptcy was the fault of its management team and execution missteps, but it also faced macro challenges as well, experts said at the time. Competition from players like Amazon, Walmart, Home Goods and Wayfair has made it harder for other brands to capture customer spend, and the overall sector has been soft for several years because of high interest rates and the sluggish housing market.
Even the current leaders in the home decor space have seen soft trends and it’s unlikely that will change until interest rates fall and the housing market picks back up, some analysts have said.
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Goldman Sachs has long been considered the king of Wall Street dealmaking. Now, the bank is increasing its focus on another target: managing money for wealthy clients and institutions. Investment banking services, like underwriting initial public offerings (IPO) and advising mergers and acquisitions (M & A), have long been Goldman’s bread and butter. In fact, the firm was ranked No. 1 in overall global M & A activity for the first seven months of 2025, capturing 32% of market share among its financial peers, according to LSEG data. Most recently, Goldman has had its hand in a number of high-profile initial public offerings, too, such as Nvidia chips-for-rent company CoreWeave , trading platform eToro , and fintech company Chime. But management sees a big opportunity in its much-smaller asset and wealth management (AWM) division. Speaking to CNBC, Marc Nachmann, Goldman’s global head of asset and wealth management, said the company has a plan to grow this business — which includes portfolio construction, risk management, financial planning and other investment services — and challenge its banking peers in a less-crowded corner of Wall Street. “There’s still an opportunity to take market share and be a winner in this game,” he said. Indeed, Goldman’s not alone in this pursuit. Morgan Stanley , for example, has been working for years to hit its goal of $10 trillion in total client assets across its wealth and investment management division, which was set under former CEO James Gorman in 2022 and continues under current CEO Ted Pick. The push for Goldman would also help to further diversify the firm’s revenue streams. Investment banking makes up more than two-thirds of overall sales, but these incomes can be volatile and cyclical. That was last seen in 2020 when the Covid-19 pandemic caused a huge disruption to Wall Street dealmaking, which the industry is still recovering from. In contrast, revenue from asset and wealth management services are often fee-based and less impacted by short-term market fluctuations. In a wide-ranging interview with Nachmann, we also talked about Goldman’s generative artificial intelligence ambitions, the regulatory backdrop under President Donald Trump , and Wall Street’s push into alternative assets, which the White House wants to allow into retirement accounts. This interview has been edited for clarity and length. A lot of Wall Street is focused on Goldman as a play on the rebound in investment banking, but I’m interested in looking into growth and expansion in areas outside of the GBM division, specifically your asset and wealth management businesses. How does AWM complement Goldman’s overall business mix? Nachmann: When you take it back to the big picture, one of the things that has helped tell our story better is that in the beginning of 2023 we had our investor day at the end of February. We reorganized the way we report and manage ourselves into these two big areas, right? So, you have GBM and AWM. GBM is the combination of the trading business and the investment banking business. I’d say it’s the long-established businesses. Both of these businesses are pretty concentrated when you think about the key players. When you think about both trading and banking between Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan , and Morgan Stanley, that’s a huge percentage of the market. And we’ve been a leader there for a long time. I’d also say overall GBM is a capital-intensive business, too, right? So, it requires a good amount of balance sheet. I think it’s a good return business, but it has some cyclicality in it. So, you see the capital markets activity, IPO calendars going up and down, M & A volumes going up and down, and trading volumes up and down. That’s a big 70% of our revenue from there. When you look at AWM, generally speaking, we have fee revenues that are sticky, durable, and generally speaking, good secular growth with both asset management and wealth. There’s less cyclicality. So, now you have less cyclical, less capital-intensive, more durable, sticky revenues, but it’s much more fragmented. And it’s not the same thing where you don’t have a Goldman, JPMorgan or Morgan Stanley who owns a huge proportion. There’s still an opportunity to take market share and be a winner in this game. I think we really simplified the firm into these two buckets. And given that AWM has this underlying secular growth, as well as the opportunity to continue to build more market share, it’s the growth part of the firm. I say that with all due respect to my colleagues in GBM. They of course want to grow too, but I’m just saying in terms of long-term growth, it’s really on the AWM side. Goldman Sachs CEO David Solomon emphasized during the conference call that Goldman is “particularly focused on thinking about ways to accelerate the asset and wealth management franchise.” Can you break down the firm’s strategy to grow this division in a more pragmatic and practical sense? Nachmann: In a big picture way, though, the AWM business grows with more headcounts because in wealth management, if you want to cover more clients, you got to have more advisors, right? These businesses grow with headcount. So, when David says we’re trying to do things to accelerate the growth, we’ve been allocating a good bit of human capital to AWM to allow the growth. That’s a big portion of it. I think the key to that on the wealth side is really two pieces. One is to continue to grow the advisor count, right? So, we watch that very carefully. We grow our advisor count consistently. One of the things we’ve done is we’re growing both in the U.S. and internationally. I’d say internationally we’re growing faster than in the U.S., but that’s because it’s off a lower base. We’ve been very focused on growing Europe and Asia at a faster advisor hiring than in the U.S., but all three regions are growing well. So, the strategy in some sense is to continue doing what you’re doing but doing it with more people. There’s a strong emphasis as well on focusing on continuing to build us out in international markets. Then the second thing on the wealth side, when you look at us as a wealth manager, we are only servicing the ultra-high-net-worth segment. That’s a $30 million account size and up. It makes us different from most of the other wealth managers amongst the public companies, and we’re sticking to that segment. Historically, our business has been super heavy on the fee revenues around advising our clients on how to do the asset allocation and how to invest their money. We have historically not been as active on the lending side, especially if you compare us to a JPMorgan. If you look at JPMorgan, more than 50% of their wealth management revenues come from lending. For us, it’s around 20% or so. We will never be at the extreme of where JPMorgan is because we want to continue to be a wealth manager in terms of giving advice on the asset side and on the investing side. But we think we can do more with our clients in helping them on the lending side. That’s another growth driver for us. In what way is Goldman trying to do that on the lending side? Nachmann: So, there’s two categories. There’s existing clients that have lending needs that we’ve historically not been very focused on. So, it’s doing more with existing clients on lending. And then I’d say there’s a large universe of clients where lending is a precursor to a wealth relationship, where lending is very important. There’s lots of wealthy people out there that are asset rich but liquidity-light. They have a lot locked up in their business. Let’s say you’re a hedge fund manager and all your money is in the hedge fund or you own a family business and you put most in that business. You can be very wealthy, but you don’t necessarily have a ton of liquidity to just do general investing into the public markets or private markets. Those clients tend to want to have some lending facilities to give them liquidity or to allow them to invest in other things. So, whoever gives them the lending becomes their preferred partner to do their wealth management. And so given that we historically haven’t been very focused on lending, those clients kind of selected themselves out and really worked more with the JPMorgans. So by more proactively focusing on the lending side, we will start doing lending with these clients. These clients over time will do all their wealth management business with us. It’s a combination of doing it with more existing clients and opening up to a whole host of new clients that we haven’t approached as well as we could have. Goldman announced a private credit product for retirement plans late last month. Can you tell me the origin of this offering and what the firm hopes to achieve by rolling it out? Nachmann: So, the way to think about private assets is that they are illiquid, and that is a fundamental thing. I am nervous about people who run around out there in the world – other asset managers who talk about having illiquid assets and describing them in vehicles that look like they’re liquid. By definition, it doesn’t work like that because private assets are illiquid. That’s the whole point of them. Now, part of the reason private assets have outperformed historically is because you’re basically getting a liquidity premium. If you believe asset prices in general are efficient, there has to be a reason why private assets have outperformed. One of the reasons is because you actually get paid for the fact that they are illiquid and you can’t take your money out all the time. Now, another reason why you can make more money in private markets sometimes is because you can actually actively manage them. If you’re a private equity firm and you buy a company, you can now make changes to the company. If you’re good at it, you can actually generate excess returns because you manage this company better. That’s much harder to do than buying a stock in the public market because you, as an individual shareholder, cannot really have as much impact. So, when you think about the democratization of alternatives that everybody talks about, what is a good way to do this? Well, one really good way to do this is in the retirement channel. Think about a 401(k). When you’re 24 years old and you graduate from college and you start your first job and you start putting your first real dollars into a 401(k) fund, those are exactly the dollars that you should put into something that pays you for being locked up for a period of time, for being illiquid. Because at 24, you’re not going to access that liquidity for decades. So, I think the retirement channel is a really interesting channel to get alternatives exposure because the fact that alternative assets are illiquid doesn’t really hurt. And so that’s why we’re very focused on launching something into the retirement channel, specifically into target date funds. One of the big benefits is these target dates all have glide paths: they start with higher equity contributions when you’re young, and as you get closer to retirement, there’s more fixed income so that when you then go into retirement, you have a fixed income stream of earnings. Does this indicate an even bigger push for Goldman moving forward into alts and other private assets? Nachmann: I think we’re a big alts player overall. We’ve stayed top five in terms of assets on the alts side. It is a bigger push that we’re making consistent with what the industry is making though into this democratization of these alt products. It’s one of the things we’re very good at because we have this ultra-high net worth business. We have a wealth system that for many decades has been investing in alternatives. We’ve had, what we call it, two-legged individuals. These are individuals who’ve invested in alternatives versus kinds of institutions. And so we have a lot of experience with individuals investing in alternatives already. I ncorporating alts into a retirement plan probably isn’t an exceptionally new idea. I’m sure people have wanted to do it for a while. The only difference now is that we have an administration that many feel will loosen up the rules. So, does the recent regulatory environment have anything to do with your decision? Nachmann: In some sense, yes. You need the right regulatory environment to be able to have alternatives in the retirement plans. As you said, this has made sense for a while. In fact, when you think about it, most pension funds, which are really kind of defined benefit programs, have big alternatives exposure. If you look at all the state pension funds, they are retirement systems. It’s just a defined benefit versus a defined contribution. That has been a long-standing way of doing things. It’s just that individuals in defined-contribution in their 401(k) plans have not been able to do it. A big reason for that is the regulation around it, and so I think it makes sense that the administration is now changing the regulation because individuals in their defined contribution plans should be able to have access to the same things that the big pension funds have. Goldman unveiled a firm-wide generative AI tool assistant earlier this year. How is this technology being utilized specifically in the AWM division? Nachmann : We are using it more and more. There are opportunities on the efficiency side, where generative AI can do things much faster or more efficiently than we’ve done historically. We’ve got a whole bunch of use cases that we’re working on. A lot of them are at various stages. They look promising. Within the next year or two, that will really accelerate and people will understand the results much better. Can you give me an example of how currently one of Goldman’s advisors may be using this tool on a day-to-day basis? Nachmann: On the wealth side, if you’re an advisor and you have a bunch of clients, you can use AI to do runaway screens through your clients’ portfolios. Is your asset allocation mixed in the right place as markets change? Based on what’s happening to various stock prices, are you overallocated to specific stocks? Are there things missing in your asset allocation that you should be incorporating? So, there’s a lot that goes into productivity enhancement. (Jim Cramer’s Charitable Trust is long GS, NVDA. See here for a full list of the stocks.) As a subscriber to the CNBC Investing Club with Jim Cramer, you will receive a trade alert before Jim makes a trade. Jim waits 45 minutes after sending a trade alert before buying or selling a stock in his charitable trust’s portfolio. If Jim has talked about a stock on CNBC TV, he waits 72 hours after issuing the trade alert before executing the trade. THE ABOVE INVESTING CLUB INFORMATION IS SUBJECT TO OUR TERMS AND CONDITIONS AND PRIVACY POLICY , TOGETHER WITH OUR DISCLAIMER . NO FIDUCIARY OBLIGATION OR DUTY EXISTS, OR IS CREATED, BY VIRTUE OF YOUR RECEIPT OF ANY INFORMATION PROVIDED IN CONNECTION WITH THE INVESTING CLUB. NO SPECIFIC OUTCOME OR PROFIT IS GUARANTEED. More
