A Goldman M&A Banker Helped Bring the Olympics to Los Angeles
Episode
32 min
Read time
2 min
Topics
Relationships, Investing, Fundraising & VC
AI-Generated Summary
Key Takeaways
- ✓2028 LA Olympics Funding Model: The LA games operate on an essentially private funding model — no government subsidies beyond federal security costs. Using existing venues (Staples Center, SoFi Stadium) and UCLA housing for 17,000 athletes eliminates construction costs that burden other host cities. Half of 15 million available tickets already sold at market-rate pricing.
- ✓M&A Market Scale in 2025: The current M&A environment is the largest in history, surpassing even the 2021 COVID-inflated peak. AI infrastructure demand has shifted the deal mix: private equity sponsor-driven deals dropped from 40% to 30% of total volume, replaced by strategic technology acquisitions in semiconductors, power generation, and AI-adjacent sectors.
- ✓Enterprise AI Adoption Reality: Only 2% of companies report a measurable positive EPS impact from AI deployment, per Goldman Sachs internal analysis. Roughly 20–30% have implemented AI strategies. The practical gap between subscription access and workflow-integrated AI is wide — meaningful adoption requires embedding AI into decision-making processes, not just providing employee tool access.
- ✓AI in M&A Advisory: AI accelerates synthesis of independent variables in deal analysis — the core skill of advisory work. Practitioners who use AI reach conclusions faster, generate counter-hypotheses more readily, and access broader information sets. The relationship and judgment layer remains human, but AI raises the floor on analytical speed and confidence for all deal professionals.
- ✓Media Content Valuation Shift: Back catalogs and content libraries have appreciated over the past decade through securitization of cash flows. AI is likely to accelerate this trend by unlocking new use cases for existing IP. Incumbent music and media rights holders face misuse risk, while individual creators gain production capabilities previously requiring large teams or budgets.
What It Covers
Gene Sykes, Goldman Sachs co-head of Global M&A and U.S. Olympic Committee chair, covers the 2028 LA Olympics structure, the record-breaking 2025 M&A market driven by AI, enterprise AI adoption rates at 2%, and how AI reshapes media valuation and dealmaking workflows.
Key Questions Answered
- •2028 LA Olympics Funding Model: The LA games operate on an essentially private funding model — no government subsidies beyond federal security costs. Using existing venues (Staples Center, SoFi Stadium) and UCLA housing for 17,000 athletes eliminates construction costs that burden other host cities. Half of 15 million available tickets already sold at market-rate pricing.
- •M&A Market Scale in 2025: The current M&A environment is the largest in history, surpassing even the 2021 COVID-inflated peak. AI infrastructure demand has shifted the deal mix: private equity sponsor-driven deals dropped from 40% to 30% of total volume, replaced by strategic technology acquisitions in semiconductors, power generation, and AI-adjacent sectors.
- •Enterprise AI Adoption Reality: Only 2% of companies report a measurable positive EPS impact from AI deployment, per Goldman Sachs internal analysis. Roughly 20–30% have implemented AI strategies. The practical gap between subscription access and workflow-integrated AI is wide — meaningful adoption requires embedding AI into decision-making processes, not just providing employee tool access.
- •AI in M&A Advisory: AI accelerates synthesis of independent variables in deal analysis — the core skill of advisory work. Practitioners who use AI reach conclusions faster, generate counter-hypotheses more readily, and access broader information sets. The relationship and judgment layer remains human, but AI raises the floor on analytical speed and confidence for all deal professionals.
- •Media Content Valuation Shift: Back catalogs and content libraries have appreciated over the past decade through securitization of cash flows. AI is likely to accelerate this trend by unlocking new use cases for existing IP. Incumbent music and media rights holders face misuse risk, while individual creators gain production capabilities previously requiring large teams or budgets.
Notable Moment
Sykes revealed that the 1984 LA Olympics, which faced identical traffic panic predictions, ran smoothly because residents received advance notice and adjusted behavior accordingly — suggesting the same outcome is achievable in 2028 through designated Olympic lanes and coordinated public communication.
Episode Transcript
00:00:02 Speaker 1: Bloomberg Audio Studios. 00:00:04 Speaker 2: Podcasts. 00:00:05 Speaker 3: Radio. News. Hello and welcome to another episode of the OddLots Podcast. I'm Tracey Alloway. 00:00:21 Speaker 1: And I'm Joe Weisenthal. 00:00:23 Speaker 3: Joe, we are here in lovely Huntington Beach at the Future Proof Conference. 00:00:27 Speaker 1: I love coming to this conference. 00:00:29 Speaker 2: You can't complain. 00:00:30 Speaker 3: The beach is right there. 00:00:31 Speaker 1: They do such a good job. 00:00:33 Speaker 4: Every time I'm here, the only thought I have is they have brought heaven on earth. And the only mystery I have is why there are people, you know, you think about like the great migration west. It's like, imagine stopping in Nebraska. You could have gone a little bit further and you could have been in California. 00:00:51 Speaker 3: Yeah. 00:00:52 Speaker 4: And it's like it was right there. And the question I have is, why doesn't everyone live here? 00:00:56 Speaker 3: OK, well, we made it to California. It's our fourth year at this particular event. And we do, in fact, have the perfect guest. We recorded an episode live on stage with Gene Sykes. He is the co-head of Global M & A at Goldman Sachs, a longtime partner and also the president of the U.S. Olympic Committee. So take a listen. 00:01:16 Speaker 1: Gene, thank you so much for joining us. 00:01:18 Speaker 2: Happy to be here. 00:01:19 Speaker 1: Let's start really simple. 00:01:21 Speaker 4: We can save the tough questions for the end, but let's start really simple. 00:01:25 Speaker 1: You wear many hats, Goldman, the Olympics. What are you up to now? 00:01:29 Speaker 2: Tell us who you are, maybe. Okay, I'm still a Goldman Sachs partner after many, many years. I think I've been a partner at Goldman Sachs for half my life. And I work on technology and media, healthcare and other things. And because I've been around for a long time, I get to do more or less what I want, which is to give people advice who need advice and value it and work with all of our teams and spend a lot of time mentoring people. So that's the Goldman part of my time. The other half of my time or more is spending time in everything related to the Olympic and Paralympic ecosystem. So I was the head of the bid when we bid for the games for Los Angeles, originally for 2024. We were awarded the 2028 games, you know, less than two years. We'll have the Olympic and Paralympic games right here in Southern California. But then four years ago, I became the chair of the board of the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee. So I spent a lot more time now thinking about how do we create Team USA so that our athletes are always the highest performing athletes in …
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