* M&A deals reach over $1 trillion so far this year, 27%

increase from last year

* Corporate confidence remains high despite geopolitical

tensions and oil price spikes

* AI's impact on business causing some companies to pause

M&A activities

By Svea Herbst-Bayliss and Dawn Kopecki

NEW ORLEANS, March 19 (Reuters) - The value of

dealmaking is close to all-time highs, even as corporate

executives struggle to navigate the Trump administration's

tariffs, wars on multiple continents and how artificial

intelligence will shape the economy in the years ahead.

Market turmoil and political uncertainty dominated the opening

sessions at Tulane University's Corporate Law Institute

conference in New Orleans this week, where nearly 1,000 of the

world's highest-profile investment bankers and M&A lawyers

mingled over cocktails, crab cakes and gumbo.

"Is instability the new normal?" said Stephan Feldgoise, co-head

of global M&A at Goldman Sachs ( GS ), opening the conference

with the keynote address on Thursday. This much market

volatility would normally kill M&A, he said, yet deals are

soaring.

Fewer deals are getting signed but bigger companies are being

bought and sold, driving the value of activity to lofty levels.

More than $1 trillion in deals has been announced so far this

year, 27% more than this time last year, according to data

compiled by Dealogic.

"M&A is running at an all-time high," Feldgoise said. "It is

phenomenal."

Confidence on corporate boards remains high, even as the

U.S.-Israeli war on Iran brings wild spikes in oil prices and

inflation fears run high.

"It feels like the new normal that there will be

uncertainty," Audra Cohen, co-managing partner of law firm

Sullivan & Cromwell's general practice group, said on a panel

discussion.

Paul, Weiss Chairman Scott Barshay, speaking on the same

panel, forecast that 2026 could even break 2021's record of

deals.

The hedge fund investors who push for changes at companies

will continue to push them to simplify operations, which will

drive M&A as they spin out non-core assets, according to bankers

and lawyers.

Activist investors ranging from Elliott Investment

Management to Jana Partners have quietly pushed some

corporations to streamline their businesses.

"We see no slowing of that trend and expect it to continue,"

Goldman's Feldgoise said.

Hostile takeovers like the fight between Netflix ( NFLX ) and

Paramount Skydance ( PSKY ) to win Warner Bros Discovery ( WBD )

may pick up as the year continues.

"Volatility makes it tougher to get friendly deals done,"

Barshay said, noting that buyers and sellers often have

differing views on price when the share price gyrates and market

uncertainty is higher.

"Stability makes it easier to cut deals, and this year

hostiles are likely to go up," he said.

The speakers also said deals are closing faster under the Trump

administration, assuaging a worry many investors and executives

had in past years when there was greater scrutiny under the

Biden administration.

Some companies, however, are pausing M&A as they figure out how

AI impacts their businesses, the panelists said.

"AI is as big a change as the internet being introduced,"

Barshay said, adding that some of his clients are tapping the

brakes on mergers as they try to sort out how the new technology

will impact buyers' and sellers' views of transactions.