Goldman Sachs President & COO John Waldron: Rooting for the English Majors

Goldman Sachs President and COO John Waldron is one of the most consequential yet elusive leaders in global finance. On Inside Blackstone, he joins host Christine Anderson on trust as the ultimate business asset, when AI productivity actually shows up in the numbers, financing the compute build-out, and why he's rooting for the English majors. The headlines tell you what happened. Inside Blackstone helps you see what may be coming next. This is Inside Blackstone, our flagship weekly podcast. Blackstone’s Global Head of Corporate Affairs Christine Anderson takes you inside our walls to share the signals we're seeing across our portfolio of 280+ companies and roughly 13,000 real estate assets — trends in business, technology, and AI — and our conversations with the people shaping the future. No jargon, just a unique read on the real economy. 00:00 — Welcome to Inside Blackstone 00:57 — The Monday Morning Meeting 4:31 — Economic Weather Report 7:46 — John Waldron Comes Inside Blackstone 9:38 — Why Trust Is the Ultimate Business Asset 15:56— When AI Productivity Shows Up in the Numbers 17:33 — The Duration Mismatch Risk in AI Infrastructure 18:52 — Financing the AI Compute Build-Out 21:00— Two Chinas: Domestic Slowdown vs. Innovation Boom 22:11 — What Goldman Looks For Beyond Technical Skill 22:51— Hiring in an AI World: Rooting for the English Majors 26:54 — The Debrief Key Takeaways Trust is the ultimate business asset. Waldron argues the technical skills are the easy part to learn, and that judgment, communication, and having a point of view are what actually compound over a career. Financing AI's build-out may be Wall Street's next great frontier. The open question is how to fund long-lived compute infrastructure against fast-moving models, a "duration mismatch" no one has fully cracked. AI productivity is about to show up in the numbers. Waldron makes the case for when the efficiency gains stop being theoretical and start appearing in the financials. And why he's still rooting for the English majors in an AI world. Find our guest: John Waldron: linkedin.com/in/johnewaldron Goldman Sachs: @GoldmanSachs | linkedin.com/company/goldman-sachs Inside Blackstone New episodes every Tuesday. Subscribe on YouTube, Spotify, and Apple Podcasts. Inside Blackstone is produced for informational and educational purposes only. It is not investment, legal, or tax advice, and views expressed by guests are their own. #AI #GoldmanSachs Follow us on Social: LinkedIn —   / blackstonegroup   X (Twitter) —   / blackstone   Instagram —   / blackstone   Sign Up for Blackstone Emails: https://www.blackstone.com/email-signup/