INDEX / DIRECTORY / GOLDMAN SACHS

Goldman Sachs

Banking 33 CITED SOURCES UPDATED 2026-09-22 METHOD V6.5
BDS-1000 Score 756 /1000 B Tier B - Severe
Military ↗ 0.00 Digital ↗ 0.00 Economic ↗ 8.80 Political ↗ 4.00
OWNERSHIP TREE 19 brands and group businesses View all

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Key Findings

  • Economic: Goldman Sachs & Co. LLC was a joint bookrunner on the State of Israel’s February 2025 US$5 billion sovereign-bond offering; the economic audit records a US$1 billion aggregate underwriting allocation.1
  • Economic: Goldman Sachs also acted as joint book-running manager on Israel’s US$8 billion SEC-registered sovereign-bond offering completed in March 2024.2
  • Political: In October 2023, Goldman Sachs announced a US$2 million commitment for critical support and humanitarian relief in Israel and employee-donation matching; the announcement did not identify recipients or an allocation for Palestinian or Gaza relief.3
  • Not found: No public evidence identified of Goldman Sachs directly contracting with or supplying products, technology, logistics, or services to the IDF, Israeli Ministry of Defense, Israeli security bodies, settlements, or occupied-territory operations.4

Target Profile

FieldDetail
Company NameThe Goldman Sachs Group, Inc.
JurisdictionDelaware, United States.5
Headquarters200 West Street, New York, New York 10282, United States.5
SectorGlobal financial services: advisory, underwriting, financing, investment, intermediation, and transaction banking.5
OwnershipPublic company; common stock trades on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol GS. The reviewed records identified no controlling shareholder holding 10% or more of common stock.5
Key Executives / GovernanceDavid Solomon, Chair, Chief Executive Officer, and director; John Waldron, President, Chief Operating Officer, and director; David Viniar, Lead Director. The 2026 proxy presented thirteen director nominees, including Michele Burns, Mark Flaherty, Kimberley Harris, John Hess, Kevin Johnson, Ellen Kullman, KC McClure, Thomas Montag, Peter Oppenheimer, Solomon, Jan Tighe, Viniar, and Waldron.6
Israeli-Nexus SummaryDocumented nexus consists principally of Israeli sovereign-debt market activity and underwriting, a Tel Aviv wealth-management office, limited historical investments in Israeli-origin technology companies, and a 2023 Israel-relief commitment; no direct military, security-technology, settlement, or occupied-territory operation was identified in the reviewed evidence.1, 3, 4

Key Facts:

Executive Summary

Goldman Sachs is a Delaware-incorporated, New York-headquartered global financial institution. Its documented Israel nexus in the supplied audits is primarily financial rather than operational, military, or technological. Goldman Sachs International appeared in Israeli government-bond market rankings, while Goldman Sachs & Co. LLC participated in documented State of Israel sovereign-bond transactions, including a US$8 billion offering completed in March 2024 and a US$5 billion offering settled in February 2025.1, 2, 9

The February 2025 underwriting agreement named Goldman Sachs & Co. LLC among five underwriters. The economic audit records an allocation of US$500 million of each bond series, or US$1 billion in aggregate principal amount, and identifies Goldman as a 20% joint bookrunner.1 These activities establish participation in sovereign-debt financing. They do not, on the available evidence, establish a defence-earmarked allocation, a contract with the IDF or Ministry of Defense, or a direct financing relationship with a named Israeli defence prime.4, 10

Goldman Sachs also maintains a Tel Aviv office through Goldman Sachs Israel LLC. The reviewed materials characterize it as a wealth-management location, not as a data centre, sovereign-cloud site, engineering centre, R&D facility, or occupied-territory operation.7, 8 Historical investments in CyberArk and Infinidat establish investment relationships with Israeli-origin cybersecurity and storage companies, respectively, but not Goldman Sachs procurement, internal deployment, continuing ownership, or service delivery to Israeli security institutions.11, 12

In October 2023, CEO David Solomon announced a US$2 million corporate commitment to organizations providing critical support and humanitarian relief in Israel, alongside employee-donation matching. The announcement did not name recipients, identify military or settlement-linked beneficiaries, or state an allocation for Palestinian or Gaza relief.3 The audits also found no public evidence of Goldman Sachs products, services, facilities, contracts, or sponsored activity in Israeli settlements, the West Bank, East Jerusalem, Gaza, or the Golan Heights.4, 7

Under the fixed, human-vetted V6.5 assessment, Goldman Sachs receives zero scores for Military and Digital involvement, while the documented sovereign-financing nexus drives the Economic score and associated Political score. Its final result is BRS 756, Tier B (Severe Complicity).

Timeline of Relevant Events

DateEvent
December 2011Goldman Sachs and Jerusalem Venture Partners led CyberArk’s US$40 million financing round; Goldman Sachs Merchant Banking vice president David Campbell joined CyberArk’s board. The reviewed source does not establish Goldman Sachs as a CyberArk customer or user.11
October 2017Goldman Sachs Private Capital Investing led Infinidat’s US$95 million Series C financing. The announcement does not establish Goldman Sachs as a customer, licensee, or user of Infinidat systems.12
Q1 2023Goldman Sachs International ranked third in the primary market for nominal Israeli government-bond issuance auctions and fifth in secondary-market activity for nominal and CPI-linked bonds. The ranking does not establish continuation after that reporting period.13
11 October 2023Goldman Sachs announced a US$2 million commitment for critical support and humanitarian relief in Israel and an employee-donation matching programme; recipients and allocations were not identified.3
12 March 2024Israel completed a US$8 billion SEC-registered sovereign-bond offering for which White & Case stated Goldman Sachs & Co. LLC acted as joint book-running manager.2
30 November 2024A Goldman Sachs Funds filing reported that the Goldman Sachs Global Managed Beta Fund held 213 Elbit Systems Ltd. shares valued at US$51,745. The filing does not establish a Goldman Sachs Group balance-sheet holding or control of Elbit.14
11 February 2025Goldman Sachs & Co. LLC signed an underwriting agreement for Israel’s US$5 billion offering of 2030 and 2035 bonds; settlement was stated as 19 February 2025.1
6 January 2026Goldman Sachs & Co. LLC was among five underwriters named for three State of Israel sovereign-bond series totalling US$6 billion. The prospectus described proceeds as for the State’s general purposes and did not allocate them to military procurement.10, 15

Corporate Overview

The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. is the reporting parent and SEC registrant. Its Form 10-K defines references to “Goldman Sachs,” “we,” “us,” “our,” and “the firm” to include the parent and consolidated subsidiaries.5 The parent is a holding company dependent on dividends, distributions, loans, and other payments from subsidiaries.5

Its significant-subsidiary schedules list financial-services entities including Goldman Sachs & Co. LLC, Goldman Sachs Bank USA, Goldman Sachs International, Goldman Sachs International Bank, Goldman Sachs Bank Europe SE, Goldman Sachs Japan Co., Ltd., J. Aron & Company LLC, and Goldman Sachs Asset Management, L.P.16 The schedules state that the parent directly or indirectly owns at least 99% of voting securities of substantially all listed entities, but omit subsidiaries that are not individually significant under SEC rules.16 They are therefore not complete legal-entity registers.

Goldman Sachs Israel LLC is listed at a Tel Aviv address and FINRA records identify it as under common control with Goldman Sachs Execution & Clearing, L.P., effective 1 March 2011.7, 17 However, the reviewed records did not identify a complete public ownership chain specifically linking Goldman Sachs Israel LLC to a named parent, nor did they disclose ownership percentage, incorporation information, or local financial results.7, 16, 17

No public evidence identified of a Goldman Sachs office, branch, subsidiary, franchisee, facility, warehouse, client-service location, or sponsored activity in an Israeli settlement, the West Bank, East Jerusalem, Gaza, or the Golan Heights.4, 7, 8

Domain Summaries

Military: Military

Mechanism of Involvement

No public evidence identified of a Goldman Sachs contract, tender award, framework agreement, memorandum, or service arrangement with the Israeli Ministry of Defense, IDF, Israel Prison Service, Border Police, Israeli intelligence bodies, or another Israeli security body.4

Goldman Sachs & Co. LLC’s participation in State of Israel sovereign-bond underwriting is documented, including the January 2026 transaction. However, the prospectus states that net proceeds are for the State’s general purposes; it does not identify a defence end-user, military procurement, or defence-earmarked use of proceeds.10, 15 Goldman Sachs International’s appearance in a government-bond primary-dealer ranking similarly documents sovereign-debt market participation rather than a defence-procurement contract.9

No public evidence identified of Goldman Sachs manufacturing, marketing, supplying, integrating, maintaining, licensing, exporting, or providing critical subsystems for weapons, munitions, military platforms, tactical technology, construction equipment, logistics, base support, or other military-use products or services in Israel or the occupied Palestinian territory.4, 5

Counter-Arguments and Evidence Limits

The strongest evidence-based defence is that Goldman Sachs is a financial-services firm, not a weapons manufacturer, defence contractor, logistics provider, or military technology supplier.5 The documented sovereign underwriting is general state financing; available filings do not allocate proceeds to the military, disclose Goldman’s fees or placement volume for the January 2026 issuance, or establish a direct relationship with a named Israeli defence prime.10, 15

BankTrack, PAX, and Profundo characterized sovereign-bond underwriting as facilitating state war financing and reported that Goldman Sachs had underwritten more than US$7 billion in Israeli sovereign bonds between 7 October 2023 and January 2025. In the supplied research, that transaction-level total remains an unverified secondary-source lead; the report’s “war bonds” terminology is its authors’ characterization, not terminology used in the issuer’s prospectus.18, 10

Named Entities and Evidence Map

Digital: Digital

Mechanism of Involvement

No public evidence identified of Goldman Sachs provision of cloud, hosting, storage, AI/ML, communications, analytics, offensive-cyber, surveillance, biometric, digital-weapons, or other technology services to Israeli military, intelligence, police, settlement, or state-security bodies.20

Goldman Sachs and Jerusalem Venture Partners led CyberArk’s 2011 financing round. CyberArk described privileged-account and session-management technology, and Goldman Sachs became a main shareholder at that time; the reviewed material does not establish Goldman Sachs as a customer or internal user.11 Goldman Sachs Private Capital Investing led Infinidat’s 2017 Series C financing, but the source does not establish an acquisition, licensing relationship, or use of Infinidat systems by Goldman Sachs.12

Goldman Sachs has a Tel Aviv office, but reviewed location disclosures do not characterize it as a data centre, cloud region, co-location site, R&D facility, or technology-development centre. No public evidence identified of participation in Project Nimbus or a comparable Israeli government-cloud initiative.7, 8, 20

Counter-Arguments and Evidence Limits

The historic CyberArk and Infinidat records document investments, not procurement, deployment, customer-data access, or security-sector service delivery.11, 12 CyberArk’s 2014 IPO and reviewed materials do not establish continuing Goldman ownership or board representation after the 2011 financing.21, 22

Goldman Sachs’ 2025 filing states that the firm and third parties may develop or incorporate AI into business processes, services, or products, and describes an internal AI risk-and-controls committee. It does not identify Israeli state, military, intelligence, or security customers, Israeli or occupied-territory training data, surveillance datasets, target-generation systems, or autonomous tracking systems.5

Named Entities and Evidence Map

Economic: Economic

Mechanism of Involvement

The principal documented Economic nexus is Israeli sovereign-debt market participation. Israel’s Ministry of Finance included Goldman Sachs in its 2024 government-bond market rankings.9 Goldman Sachs & Co. LLC was a joint bookrunner on Israel’s February 2025 US$5 billion offering. The economic audit records US$500 million allocated to Goldman in each of the 2030 and 2035 series, totaling US$1 billion in aggregate principal amount, and records Goldman as a 20% joint bookrunner.1

Goldman Sachs also acted as joint book-running manager on Israel’s US$8 billion SEC-registered sovereign-bond offering completed in March 2024.2 Earlier 2020 offering materials hosted by Goldman Sachs identify Goldman Sachs (Asia) L.L.C., Taipei Branch among underwriters or advisers for State of Israel notes; the review does not establish the continuing status of that relationship.23

A Goldman Sachs Funds portfolio filing reported a small disclosed position - 213 Elbit Systems Ltd. shares valued at US$51,745 - as of 30 November 2024. This does not establish that the parent held Elbit securities on its own balance sheet or exercised control over Elbit.14

Counter-Arguments and Evidence Limits

The available evidence establishes underwriting and market activity, but not direct lending or trade-finance facilities to settlement-listed companies or Israeli defence primes, insurance underwriting, Israel Bonds retail sales, or controlling-principal or family-office investments.1, 5 It also does not disclose the firm’s underwriting fees, net proceeds, or financial benefit from the February 2025 transaction.1

No public evidence identified of direct supplier relationships, Israeli consumer-product sourcing, Goldman-controlled Israeli manufacturers or consumer brands, settlement-origin goods, customs or labeling issues, or operating locations in occupied territory.4, 5, 7 Passive fund holdings, advisory mandates, and minority or private-fund investments are not equivalent to operating control.

Named Entities and Evidence Map

Political: Political

Mechanism of Involvement

Goldman Sachs’ October 2023 public statement announced a US$2 million commitment to organizations providing critical support and humanitarian relief in Israel, as well as 3:1 matching for qualifying employee donations below US$25 and 1:1 matching for larger donations.3 The statement referred to employees and colleagues in Tel Aviv. It did not identify recipient organizations, grant amounts, payment dates, military or settlement-linked beneficiaries, or an allocation for Palestinian or Gaza relief.3

The documented sovereign underwriting also has political relevance because it establishes continuing financial participation in Israel’s sovereign-debt market after the 2023 primary-dealer ranking.1, 13 Goldman Sachs International ranked third in the primary market for nominal Israeli government-bond issuance auctions in the first quarter of 2023; that ranking does not establish activity after that period.13

No public evidence identified of a Goldman Sachs contract directly providing products, equipment, or financial services to the IDF, Ministry of Defense, settlement authorities, or military-welfare bodies.4

Counter-Arguments and Evidence Limits

The US$2 million relief announcement is not evidence, on the reviewed record, that funds reached the Israeli military, settlements, or any particular political organization; recipients were not named.3 Similarly, the sovereign underwriting evidence establishes a financial relationship with the State of Israel, but available documents do not identify a military allocation or direct security-body contract.1, 10

No public evidence identified in reviewed records of Israel/Palestine-specific employee-discipline rules, reservist-pay policies, settlement-specific transaction due diligence, boycott campaigns, legal proceedings, regulatory enforcement, OECD National Contact Point complaints, anti-BDS activity, or Israel/Palestine-linked charitable, military-welfare, settlement, defence, or surveillance roles for the named executives.4, 6

Named Entities and Evidence Map

BDS-1000 Score

Method: V6.5.

DomainIMPV-Domain Score
Military0.000.000.000.00
Digital0.000.000.000.00
Economic8.807.009.008.80
Political4.007.009.004.00

The V_MAX is driven by documented Israeli sovereign-debt underwriting and market participation, with the February 2025 transaction providing the clearest allocation-level evidence.1 The Political score reflects the same direct sovereign-financing nexus and the documented Israel-relief commitment, while Military and Digital remain zero because the audits found no verified direct military, security, or security-technology provision.3, 4 The scale-free, evidence-only V6.5 method uses fixed human-vetted scores rather than extrapolating beyond the documented record.

Methodology Note

Footnotes

  1. https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/52749/000110465925015165/tm256980d1_ex99-l.htm ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5 ↩6 ↩7 ↩8 ↩9 ↩10 ↩11 ↩12 ↩13 ↩14

  2. https://www.whitecase.com/news/press-release/white-case-advises-israel-us8-billion-sec-registered-bond-offering ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5 ↩6

  3. https://www.goldmansachs.com/pressroom/announcements/2023/11-oct-2023-david-solomon-to-all ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5 ↩6 ↩7 ↩8 ↩9

  4. https://www.goldmansachs.com/our-firm/locations ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5 ↩6 ↩7 ↩8 ↩9 ↩10 ↩11

  5. https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/886982/000088698226000091/gs-20251231.htm ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5 ↩6 ↩7 ↩8 ↩9 ↩10 ↩11

  6. https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/886982/000119312526117433/gs-20260319.htm ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5

  7. https://www.goldmansachs.com/our-firm/locations ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5 ↩6 ↩7 ↩8 ↩9 ↩10 ↩11

  8. https://pwm.gs.com/emea/en-gb/about-us/locations/emea/tel-aviv ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5 ↩6

  9. https://www.gov.il/BlobFolder/dynamiccollectorresultitem/annual-debt-report-2024/en/files-eng_Annual-Debt-Reports_annual-debt-report-2024-accessible-version-en.pdf ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5

  10. https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/52749/000110465926001036/tm2534616-2_424b5.htm ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5 ↩6 ↩7

  11. https://www.cyberark.com/zh-hans/press/jvp-goldman-sachs-lead-40-million-investment-round-cyber-ark-software/ ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5

  12. https://www.infinidat.com/es/node/267 ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5

  13. https://www.gov.il/BlobFolder/dynamiccollectorresultitem/pd-ranking-2023/en/files-eng_Primary-Dealers-Ranking_RankingPDs2023-1.pdf ↩ ↩2 ↩3

  14. https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/822977/000175272425008462/NPORT_58X8_21562828_1124.htm ↩ ↩2 ↩3

  15. https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/52749/000110465926003199/tm263022d1_ex99-i.htm ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5

  16. https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/886982/000088698226000091/gs-12312025exhibit211.htm ↩ ↩2 ↩3

  17. https://files.brokercheck.finra.org/firm/firm_3466.pdf ↩ ↩2

  18. https://www.banktrack.org/news/seven_underwriters_of_war_bonds_instrumental_in_enabling_israel_s_assault_on_gaza_new_research_finds ↩

  19. https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/886982/000119312525054559/d863231ddef14a1.pdf ↩

  20. https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/886982/000088698226000091/gs-20251231.htm ↩ ↩2

  21. https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1598110/000119312514350723/d692893d424b4.htm ↩

  22. https://jvpvc.com/news-room/jvps-cyberark-goes-public-nasdaq-record-ipo/ ↩

  23. https://www.goldmansachs.com/worldwide/greater-china/taiwan-offerings/notes-due-13-may-2060 ↩