JPMorgan Launches $1.5 Trillion National Economic Security Plan

JPMorgan Chase wants to focus $1.5 trillion on “industries critical to national economic security.”

To that end, the banking giant announced in a Monday (Oct. 13) press release the Security and Resiliency Initiative, a 10-year plan to “facilitate, finance and invest” in said industries.

As part of the plan, JPMorgan will make direct equity and venture capital investments of up to $10 billion in select companies, mostly in the United States, to help them boost growth, innovation and strategic manufacturing, the release said.

“It has become painfully clear that the United States has allowed itself to become too reliant on unreliable sources of critical minerals, products and manufacturing—all of which are essential for our national security,” JPMorgan Chase Chairman and CEO Jamie Dimon said in the release. “Our security is predicated on the strength and resiliency of America’s economy. America needs more speed and investment. It also needs to remove obstacles that stand in the way: excessive regulations, bureaucratic delay, partisan gridlock and an education system not aligned to the skills we need.”

The plan is centered around four areas, including supply chain and advanced manufacturing, which includes critical minerals, pharmaceutical precursors and robotics, according to the release.

Also in focus are defense and aerospace projects, energy independence and resilience, and “frontier and strategic technologies,” which include artificial intelligence, cybersecurity and quantum computing, the release said.

“This new initiative includes efforts like ensuring reliable access to life-saving medicines and critical minerals, defending our nation, building energy systems to meet AI-driven demand and advancing technologies like semiconductors and data centers,” Dimon said in the release. “Our support of clients in these industries remains unwavering.”

The bank’s plan to address AI-created demand is happening as companies uncover the hidden costs behind the promise of the technology.

A World Economic Forum report found that “many AI deployments fall short because companies underestimate the less visible costs of implementation. Data preparation, system integration, retraining and governance often consume more resources than the initial software or cloud fees.”

Cognizant Chief Financial Officer Jatin Dalal described a partnership with Telstra where multi-agent AI compressed weeks of engineering work into days, although the true outcome depended on how those saved hours were redeployed.

Dalal said CFOs should think of AI as a capital investment, not an experiment.