Jamie Dimon isn't just lending to the Pentagon's suppliers anymore—he wants JPMorgan Chase to own more of them. As the Wall Street Journal reports, a 2023 visit to an Alabama missile plant helped push the CEO to recast the country's largest bank as a direct investor in what it calls "national security and economic resiliency" companies, from weapons makers to AI drone firms and rare-earth miners. Dimon has carved out $10 billion of JPMorgan's own capital—usually parked in loans and Treasury bonds—to buy stakes in such businesses, and says he could eventually more than double that.
The effort, run by ex-Berkshire Hathaway star Todd Combs, sits alongside a far larger goal: $1.5 trillion in lending and deal-making for defense-adjacent industries by 2035, in close coordination with federal agencies. It also aligns with Trump-era priorities to bulk up US industrial capacity, even as Dimon faces criticism from both the right and within his own bank over earlier climate and racial-equity pushes. The Journal frames it as part patriotic branding exercise, part throwback to old-style merchant banking—and part legacy project for a 70-year-old CEO planning his exit.
The initiative has the support of the next generation of the bank's leadership: "The overwhelmingly positive response we've received ... has reinforced our conviction that there is a real need for this work—and that we have an important role to play," said Doug Petno, who was last week named co-president. Read the full Journal piece for the deep dive into Dimon's strategy, politics, and succession stakes.
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