Goldman Sachs posts 2025 Form 10-K highlighting human capital priority

Goldman Sachs posted its 2025 Form 10-K and related financial disclosures on its investor relations page on February 25, 2026, placing human capital front and center while continuing a heavy program of shareholder returns. The filing shows headcount of 47,400 as of December 2025 and frames talent as a core strategic asset even as the firm returned $16.78 billion to common shareholders in 2025, including $12.36 billion in repurchases and $4.42 billion in dividends.

The human capital section details geographic scale and diversity: offices in over 35 countries, with 50% of employees based in the Americas, 20% in Europe, Middle East and Africa, and 30% in Asia as of December 2025. The filing notes employees come from over 190 countries and speak more than 175 languages. The 10-K asserts plainly, “Our people are our greatest asset. We believe that a major strength and principal reason for our success is the quality, dedication, determination and collaboration of our people, which enables us to serve our clients, generate long-term value for our shareholders and contribute to the broader community.”

Goldman singled out seven strategic locations by name: Bengaluru, Salt Lake City, Dallas, Singapore, Warsaw, Birmingham and Hyderabad. The filing reports that as of December 2025, 45% of employees were working in strategic locations and says the firm believes those investments “enable us to build centers of excellence around specific capabilities that support our business initiatives.” The 10-K also notes the firm continues to evaluate the expanded use of strategic locations, “including cities in which we do not currently have a presence,” signaling ongoing geographic deployment of work and hiring.

The annual report couples human-capital emphasis with capital- and performance-focused targets. Goldman reported Common Equity Tier 1 ratios of 14.3% under Standardized Capital Rules and 15.1% under Advanced Capital Rules as of December 2025. Management set forward-looking return targets of 14% to 16% ROE and 15% to 17% ROTE, and specified Asset & Wealth Management goals of high-teens ROE and a pre-tax margin near 30% within a three-to-five-year horizon from year-end 2025. The firm also laid out a strategic ambition to grow total alternative assets under supervision to $750 billion by the end of 2030. The 10-K reiterates the firm’s three main business segments: Global Banking & Markets; Asset & Wealth Management; and Platform Solutions.

The filing includes midyear consolidated financial statement excerpts from the June 2025 Form 10-Q that are labeled unaudited and prepared under U.S. GAAP. Those excerpts show total liabilities of 1,660,913 and a comparative 1,553,976, and include line items such as trading liabilities of 253,194 and 202,555 and unsecured long-term borrowings of 279,967 and 242,634. The June 2025 statements include the disclosure that the consolidated financial statements are unaudited and should be read in conjunction with audited annual statements, underscoring that year-end audited figures in the posted 10-K are the definitive numbers.

By tying explicit workforce metrics and a list of named strategic locations to concrete capital-return and performance targets, the 2025 Form 10-K frames Goldman Sachs’ near-term strategy as a dual bet: deploy global talent hubs to drive the firm’s business-segment goals while sustaining a robust capital-return program backed by healthy CET1 ratios.