When banks chase paper this hard to win the next IPO mandate, you are late in the cycle.
Wall Street is lending cash against stock that cannot be sold. JPMorgan’s private-bank loan demand jumped tenfold in months. Goldman’s San Francisco loan balances are up 50% since 2023. Banks are writing share-pledge loans against pre-IPO AI paper, some as small as $150 million. That is leverage stacked on valuations nobody can mark. 2021-vintage startups … Read more