Three investment themes that are not AI

Research evidence excerpt

Three investment themes that are not AI

Portfolio Strategy Research

17 July 2026 | 4:29PM EDT

US WEEKLY KICKSTART

n Painful volatility in popular AI infrastructure stocks has renewed investor Ben Snider

+1(212)357-1744 | ben.snider@gs.com

interest investment themes outside of AI. The plunging Momentum factor has Goldman Sachs & Co. LLC

erased its gains since the end of April as its volatility has surged to the highest Ryan Hammond

+1(212)902-5625 |

level on record outside of recessions. Meanwhile, the equal-weight S&P 500 ryan.hammond@gs.com

Goldman Sachs & Co. LLC

continues to make new highs, and correlations across S&P 500 stocks have Jenny Ma

dropped to the lowest level in decades. +1(212)357-5775 | jenny.ma@gs.com Goldman Sachs & Co. LLC

n We highlight three investment ideas that are unrelated to AI and trading Daniel Chavez

+1(212)357-7657 |

with minimal correlation to our AI baskets or the Momentum factor: daniel.chavez@gs.com

Consumer experience stocks, “compounders,” and M&A candidates.

Kartik Jayachandran

n Consumer experience stocks offer exposure to strong secular growth in +1(212)855-7744kartik.jayachandran@gs.com|

consumer spending on experiences at undemanding valuations. We screen Goldman Sachs & Co. LLC

Christophe Sung for companies with businesses focused on physical experiences, creating +1(212)902-3841 |

insulation from AI disruption risk. Consumer spending on experiences has christophe.sung@gs.comGoldman Sachs & Co. LLC

recently accelerated and outpaced broader services spending. The group of 36

stocks has outperformed the equal-weight Consumer Discretionary sector by 17

pp YTD but its relative valuation remains well below the 10-year average.

n A group of “compounders” with strong earnings growth and returns on