Goldman Sachs' up-to-$2.25bn acquisition of NEOS Investments

On 12 August 2026, Goldman Sachs announced an agreement to acquire NEOS Investments, a fast-growing options-based income ETF (an exchange-traded fund: an investment fund whose shares can be bought and sold on a stock exchange like ordinary shares) provider managing around $30bn in assets, for consideration of up to $2.25 billion in cash and equity.

Goldman Sachs Asset Management is Goldman's investing arm, overseeing roughly $4 trillion in assets under supervision. NEOS Investments, founded in 2022 by Troy Cates and Garrett Paolella, is one of the fastest-growing ETF platforms in the US, running 19 options-based income ETFs (funds that use options strategies to generate monthly income) with about $30bn in combined assets as of 30 June 2026.

This is a private acquisition of an asset management business rather than a public takeover, so there is no shareholder vote or takeover panel involved. The main conditions are regulatory approval and customary closing conditions. The price is structured with a partial earn-out (a mechanism where part of the purchase price is only paid later, contingent on the acquired business hitting agreed performance or service targets, rather than the full amount changing hands at closing). Goldman's own press release describes the $2.25bn as payable "subject to the achievement of certain performance and/or service commitments." NEOS's co-founders will join Goldman Sachs Asset management as Partners once the deal closes.

Consideration is a mix of cash and Goldman Sachs equity, funded by Goldman itself rather than through external acquisition financing. This is unsurprising for a deal of this size relative to Goldman's own balance sheet. Goldman Sachs Global Banking & Markets acted as Goldman's own in-house financial adviser, and Barclays advised NEOS as its exclusive financial adviser.

Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz are the legal counsel to Goldman Sachs, with Willkie Farr & Gallagher LLP as the legal counsel to the asset management branch of Goldman Sachs. Ropes & Gray LLP are the legal counsel to NEOS.

This is Goldman's second acquisition of a niche options-income ETF management in under a year, following its roughly $2bn purchase of Innovator Capital Management, and together the two deals push Goldman Sachs Asset Management into the top eight active ETF providers by assets. The deal further highlights a case where a large institution is buying its way into a fast-growing product category. Derivative-income ETFs have grown at more than 70% a year since 2021, according to Morningstar.