Goldman Sachs finds AI driving measurable profits at tech firms

Investing.com - Goldman Sachs reported that hardware companies are seeing measurable financial benefits from AI deployments, with applications expanding beyond productivity tools to revenue-generating workflows. The investment bank surveyed seven technology companies at its 2026 Technology + Communacopia Conference earlier this month, including NetApp (NASDAQ: NTAP), HP Inc. (NYSE: HPQ), Ingram Micro (NYSE: INGM), Dell (NYSE: DELL), Hewlett Packard Enterprise (NYSE: HPE), Super Micro Computer (NASDAQ: SMCI), and Penguin Solutions.

The companies reported deploying AI across code generation, product development, manufacturing automation, customer support, supply chain planning, pricing, quoting, and sales lead generation. Goldman Sachs said AI adoption is moving beyond copilots toward agentic workflows that support both productivity gains and revenue generation.

NetApp disclosed that 13 of roughly 400 AI initiatives evaluated now contribute positively to the company's profit and loss statement across product development, customer support, and supply chain management. Dell described a multi-year effort to redesign workflows around AI and agents that helped drive operating expenses as a percentage of revenue to roughly 8% in fiscal 2027 estimates versus a mid-teens percentage historical average.

Companies said they are using hybrid AI architectures that balance token economics, data security, and access to frontier models. The firms reported growing use of open-source and open-weight models for high-volume, repeatable inference workloads while reserving frontier models for more complex tasks.

Goldman Sachs said the hardware companies provide a unique perspective on AI returns as both suppliers of AI infrastructure and large enterprise users themselves. The bank noted AI initiatives remain early in the adoption curve but are beginning to generate measurable profit and loss benefits and support operating leverage.

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