Data compiled by London Stock Exchange Group shows that in the first half of 2026, Goldman Sachs (GS.US) expanded its market share in merger and acquisition advisory business involving the Europe, Middle East, and Africa region, securing the largest share for that period in nearly a decade.
Statistics indicate the total value of deals in the EMEA region reached $676 billion in the first half of 2026, more than double the level of 2025 and setting a new 19-year high for the period. This surge reflects an unprecedented wave of technology M&A driven by the AI boom, occurring against a backdrop of more relaxed regulatory constraints.
Goldman Sachs is also the absolute leader in the global M&A market and in investment banking and financial transaction business, and has long held a dominant position in EMEA advisory. However, analysis of the LSEG data shows that in the first half of this year, JPMorgan Chase, the region's second-largest commercial banking giant, managed to slightly narrow the gap with it.
The data shows that in the first six months of 2026, Goldman Sachs advised on 111 M&A transactions, representing 44% of the EMEA M&A total by value, up from 42% in the same period a year earlier. This is Goldman Sachs's highest share of the EMEA M&A market for a January-June period since 2018, when its share reached 46%.
Compared to its competitors, Goldman Sachs leads JPMorgan Chase by 9 percentage points; the latter advised on 99 announced M&A market deals, representing a 35% share by value. Analysis of historical ranking data shows this is a smaller lead than the 11-percentage-point advantage Goldman Sachs held over JPMorgan Chase in the first half of 2025.
Globally, Goldman Sachs holds a 38% market share and has advised on the highest number of deals among all financial advisors. In terms of the number of deals advised, the independent advisory boutique Rothschild advised on 163 transactions, surpassing Goldman Sachs. However, Goldman Sachs's overall lead is built on its advisory role in 15 of the 20 largest M&A deals.
This includes advising consumer goods giant Unilever on the sale of its food business to McCormick for approximately $45 billion, a transaction in which Morgan Stanley also participated and provided advisory services; this was the largest M&A deal in the EMEA region during the period. Goldman Sachs also advised on the $34 billion merger of TK Elevators with Kone.
JPMorgan Chase, Goldman Sachs's closest competitor in the region by market size, participated in 13 of the largest deals but was not involved in the McCormick-Unilever merger.
Last year, global M&A activity stalled initially amid uncertainty following the return of former U.S. President Donald Trump to the White House early in the year. The current M&A market remains highly volatile, and bankers note that this year's rankings could change significantly if deals fail to complete and are removed from the tally.
For example, Goldman Sachs advised Commerzbank, which has been trying to fend off a $28 billion takeover offer from UniCredit. However, bankers also stated that global corporations have proactively decided to look beyond market turbulence.
"Companies are taking a long-term strategic view and investing in where they want to be decades from now, not just the next few quarters," said Carsten Woehrn, co-head of EMEA M&A at Goldman Sachs.
Valeria Vitkova, Associate Professor of Finance at Bayes Business School, said Goldman Sachs's dominance in deal-making highlights a significant shift in the competitive landscape since the global financial crisis, with the field becoming narrower after the severe blow dealt by the crisis.
"The firm's sustained leadership reflects more than just a run of favorable years. It appears to represent a durable M&A advisory competitive advantage that has persisted into the post-crisis era," Vitkova said. She added that during this period, especially in the AI era, deal-making has actually become more complex.
AI Reshapes the Global Industrial Landscape
The record 19-year high for EMEA M&A volume benefits from regulatory easing and improved financing conditions, as well as from the AI wave pushing companies to reconfigure assets and compete for technological capabilities and scale advantages.
LSEG data shows global M&A volume reached approximately $2.8 trillion in the first half of 2026, a 48% year-on-year increase. Forty-seven mega-deals exceeding $10 billion contributed nearly half of the total value, with technology deal volume reaching about $649 billion. AI application-related companies and AI computing power infrastructure-intensive segments were the most important drivers.
A recent study by PwC also noted that global deal value could reach $4 trillion in 2026, emphasizing that the AI super-wave is amplifying a "K-shaped" deal landscape: AI infrastructure assets like power and data centers are hot, while traditional software assets are attracting acquisition interest from large enterprises as they are revalued due to AI disruption risks.
Undoubtedly, the unprecedented AI super-wave is becoming a key structural engine for the M&A recovery. Meanwhile, relaxed regulatory constraints, the return of mega-deals, corporate strategic restructuring, and the reactivation of cross-border capital have collectively pushed EMEA first-half M&A volume to a 19-year high.
The recovery surge in M&A transactions driven by this series of positive factors—"AI reshaping the industrial landscape + a looser regulatory environment + the return of mega-deals + corporate long-term strategic restructuring"—may not only be playing out in the EMEA region but is likely unfolding vigorously in global markets.
Morgan Stanley predicts that by 2028, nearly $3 trillion in AI-related infrastructure investment will flow through the global economy, with over 80% of the spending still ahead. The firm also forecasts that supply chain bottlenecks at the AI computing power infrastructure level have expanded from "mass purchases of GPUs/ASICs" to "striving to simultaneously address the entire AI data center delivery chain, including data center power equipment, liquid cooling, data center CPUs, DRAM/NAND/HBM, data center optical communication/interconnect, high-performance Ethernet network infrastructure, transformers, and gas turbines."
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