Goldman Sachs (NYSE:GS) revealed that its private credit fund saw redemption requests of just under 5% of shares in the first quarter, amid an industry-wide trend of increased redemptions.

Firms such as Apollo Global, Ares Management, BlackRock, JPMorgan and Morgan Stanley have all capped redemptions in recent weeks after investors have requested a large amount of withdrawal requests driven by concerns surrounding the private credit sector.

​​Oaktree Capital Management elected to fully satisfy all redemption requests for 8.5% of its private credit fund for the first quarter. Oaktree Strategic Credit Fund (OSC) plans to repurchase approximately 13.9 million shares, representing 6.8% of its outstanding shares, Reuters reported. 

Goldman's ability to handle all redemptions without breaching its threshold may point to uneven stress across the industry. Many investors in Goldman’s fund come from its private wealth channels, known for their tolerance of illiquidity,  a source familiar with the matter told Reuters. 

Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell noted during a talk at Harvard University last week that the turmoil the private credit sector has seen in recent weeks is not indicative of a broader risk to the financial system.

Powell added that the $3 trillion private credit industry is a "relatively small slice” of the asset pool and is something that the Fed is watching “super carefully,” MSN reported.

Goldman maintains that the overall health of the private credit industry remains robust, with low default rates in both public and private markets. 

“We believe these results highlight the strong position of GS Credit relative to the broader non-traded BDC industry,” Goldman noted in a regulatory filing. 

Artificial Intelligence And Software

Goldman has also been "proactively" assessing the impacts of artificial intelligence (AI) on the software space for years, and rolled out an internal framework to evaluate AI disruption risk early last year, the firm stated.

The bank stated, “While we approach the topic of AI with humility and will continue to evolve and pressure-test our framework as new datapoints emerge, we believe the impacts of AI (both negative and positive) will be nuanced and company-specific. Advancements in AI have created increased uncertainty and given rise to a wider band of potential outcomes for incumbent software companies."

Software-as-a-service (SaaS) and data-provider stocks saw sharp declines in recent weeks amid market concerns that artificial intelligence will erode the relevance of the sector.

Some of the top private equity CEOs have addressed what many call the “SaaS apocalypse” as investors relay their concerns regarding the stock slump.

Goldman noted that they anticipate more dispersion in company performance as "AI increases competitive intensity and fundamentally changes how workflows are executed within the enterprise."

"We believe that not all software is created equally and many incumbent software companies will leverage AI to deliver additional value to customers and accelerate revenue growth," the bank wrote.

Institutional Demand Fuels Growth

Although the firm operates within the same market as other business development companies, Goldman has broadened its funding base by leveraging a private credit platform geared toward institutional investors.

"While retail and some wealth management investors are pulling back from private credit, we believe many institutional investors are recognizing this dislocation as an attractive entry or re-entry point into the asset class, which we believe will benefit GS Credit and shareholders who choose to remain invested," Goldman wrote.

In the first quarter of 2026, Goldman's private credit fund generated $823 million from repayments, an increase from $669 million in the fourth quarter. 

Institutional investors make up over 80% of Goldman Sachs Asset Management’s Private Credit platform, shielding it from the repurchase dynamics as retail vehicles, the firm noted. 

Additionally, Goldman’s direct lending platform is experiencing a strong influx of institutional mandates across all its senior direct lending strategies. The firm noted it has more than $10 billion in commitments under documentation and diligence.

"We believe this continued trend—which has accelerated over the past six months as manager dispersion has grown—reflects institutional clients' recognition that evergreen vehicles can solve structural limitations inherent in traditional drawdown funds, including J-curve drag, vintage concentration, and re-underwriting risk," the firm wrote.

Goldman believes the continued widening of new origination credit spreads in the current environment could make this "an opportune time for institutional clients to increase their exposure to private credit through a vehicle that offers the immediate ability to invest and diversify their portfolios across new investment opportunities."

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