Bank of America has assigned three senior bankers — Gregg Nabhan, Jill Schwartz and Ray Wood — to work across its industry coverage groups and deepen relationships with clients in what the lender terms the "AI ecosystem," according to reporting published on Wednesday. The three will focus on artificial-intelligence-related companies that may require financing, mergers and acquisitions advice and other products and services. The assignment is intended to give the bank a coordinated point of contact for a client set that does not sit neatly within any single sector team. Bank of America characterised the AI ecosystem as an expanding segment of the economy encompassing hundreds of companies across the supply chain and value chain of artificial-intelligence infrastructure construction.
The move reflects the cross-sector nature of the AI buildout, which draws in semiconductor manufacturers, data-centre developers, power producers, utilities, industrial suppliers and private capital providers simultaneously. Each of the three bankers brings a franchise that maps onto a different part of that chain. Nabhan is chair of equity capital markets and has previously led the bank's capital markets advisory unit, having overseen more than 400 transactions across a Wall Street career spanning close to four decades. Schwartz is executive vice chairman of global corporate and investment banking and global head of the financial sponsors group, where she leads coverage of private equity and alternative asset manager clients across M&A, leveraged finance and equity capital markets. Wood is chairman of the global natural resources and energy transition group, leading coverage teams spanning regulated utilities, independent power and clean energy.
BUILDING ON A BROADER AI PUSH
The assignment follows a series of AI-related organisational changes at the lender over the past year. In July, Bank of America named Kevin Milsom head of platforms AI transformation within its global markets group, moved Amy Avery and her Analytics, Modelling & Insights team into the global platforms group, and appointed Sonali Theisen head of the global digital assets platform alongside her existing responsibilities for global FICC e-trading. In March, the bank recruited four senior technology bankers, including Gary Kirkham as executive vice chair of global technology investment banking and Jason Rowe as global co-head of technology investment banking, in an effort to rebuild dealmaking capacity in the technology sector.
Those appointments were largely oriented toward internal adoption of AI tools and toward technology-sector coverage. The latest assignment is directed outward at the client franchise, and specifically at capital formation. Bank of America has separately committed substantial balance-sheet capacity to the theme, announcing in August a plan to deploy $250 billion into an infrastructure initiative supporting United States investments in data centres, energy and minerals. Internally, the bank has said it plans to allocate $4 billion to new technology capabilities from a technology budget of $13 billion.
COMPETING FOR AI MANDATES
The reassignment places Bank of America among lenders restructuring senior coverage around the AI capital cycle. TD Bank Group announced senior leadership appointments effective 4 September centralising artificial intelligence, digital assets and enterprise strategy, naming Vlad Shpilsky group head of global technology and solutions and Renu Gupta chief strategy and commercial officer. Analysts have pointed to a widening credit opportunity as AI capital expenditure spreads beyond technology firms. Wells Fargo analysts told clients that AI capital expenditure is "broadening into the industries that supply, power and finance it, setting up the best commercial lending backdrop in over a decade."