US Weekly Kickstart What Q2 earnings reports signaled about the state of corporate AI adoption

Portfolio Strategy Research 14 August 2026 | 4:12PM EDT

What Q2 earnings reports signaled about the state of corporate AI adoption

n Q2 earnings results were extremely strong, with S&P 500 earnings once again Ben Snider | boosted by AI infrastructure stocks. S&P 500 EPS growth is tracking at 31% Goldman Sachs & Co. LLC

year/year excluding the “other income” related to some private investment Ryan Hammond | stakes. We estimate that AI infrastructure stocks have accounted for roughly half Goldman Sachs & Co. LLC of that EPS growth. However, earnings growth for the rest of the market has also Jenny Ma been strong and accelerating. The median S&P 500 company grew EPS by 14% | Goldman Sachs & Co. LLC year/year during Q2. Daniel Chavez | n The impact of AI adoption on corporate earnings still appears narrow. During Goldman Sachs & Co. LLC the Q2 earnings season, 11% of S&P 500 companies quantified the impact of AI Kartik Jayachandran productivity on a specific use case, such as coding or customer support. 2% of | firms quantified the impact of AI productivity on earnings, a similar share to Q1 Goldman Sachs & Co. LLC

2026. Q2 results showed a small and statistically insignificant difference in Christophe Sung | earnings growth between the companies quantifying AI productivity gains this Goldman Sachs & Co. LLC quarter and other S&P 500 companies. n However, the recent acceleration in enterprise AI spending suggests that the earnings impact of AI adoption should become clearer in coming quarters. We estimate that AI inference expenses currently equate to less than 0.5% of S&P 500 revenues, but spending appears to have accelerated sharply in recent months. The latest GS IT Spending Survey showed that roughly two thirds of companies currently fund AI expenses by reallocating from other sources, including budgets for software (18%) and labor (11%). There has been limited evidence that AI spending is eroding software revenues thus far. Our economists continue to note a visible but narrow impact of AI on the labor market. n The limited earnings impact of AI adoption to date helps explain why investors have continued to focus almost exclusively on AI infrastructure stocks rather than potential AI productivity beneficiaries. Investors have rewarded companies involved in the AI infrastructure boom due to the large and visible near-term earnings impact of that spending. In contrast, both our client discussions and market performance indicate that investors want to avoid speculating about which companies will be most effective at implementing AI and where long-term productivity gains will accrue. A basket of stocks that have discussed AI productivity initiatives has roughly matched the broader S&P 500 during the past few years with limited volatility. n We update our screen of AI Productivity Beneficiaries and rebalance our

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Goldman Sachs US Weekly Kickstart

labor cost baskets. Exhibit 14 shows a list of stocks that discussed AI during Q2 earnings calls and rank in the top half of their sectors based on both labor costs and labor exposure to AI automation. Our rebalanced Low Labor Cost (GSTHLLAB) and High Labor Cost (GSTHHLAB) baskets are shown in Exhibit 15-Exhibit 16.

Q2 earnings reports and corporate AI adoption

The Q2 earnings season delivered stellar results, with stocks involved in the AI infrastructure build-out continuing to boost S&P 500 profit growth. S&P 500 EPS growth in Q2 2026 is tracking at 31% year/year excluding the “other income” related to some private investment stakes. Earnings for the hyperscalers and the AI infrastructure companies benefiting from their capex spending increased by 54% year/year in Q2, accounting for about 50% of S&P 500 EPS growth during the quarter. However, earnings growth for the rest of the market has also been strong and accelerating. Excluding the Energy sector profits that were boosted by higher oil prices, the rest of the S&P 500 posted year/year EPS growth of 14%.

Exhibit 1: AI infrastructure stocks have…