JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon on the bank’s plans to boost spending by $9 billion in 2026: “Trust me”
When it comes to AI spending, “we are going to stay up front, so help us God,” Dimon said.
JPMorgan is spending more, and investors are just going to have to trust that Jamie Dimon’s putting the money to good use.
During JPMorgan’s Q4 earnings call on Tuesday, CFO Jeremy Barnum referenced the bank’s expense guidance, which confirmed its outlook for costs to rise by $9 billion (to $105 billion) in 2026.
Wells Fargo analyst Mike Mayo asked management for more color on the expense guidance, and in particular for granular details on AI-linked costs, as well as any early returns the bank has realized from such investments.
However, CEO and Chairman Jamie Dimon was not into the idea of providing a line-by-line detailed audit of his spending and resultant outcomes. His reply included (emphasis added):
“Mike, we owe you all, as shareholders, as much information we can give you, but we’re not going to give you information which I think puts us at a competitive disadvantage.”
“The good news is when we look at the world, we see huge opportunity. We’re opening rural branches, which we think will be good. We’re opening more branches in foreign countries. We’re building better payment systems. We’re adding better personalization in consumer banking, credit card, where we’re adding AI across the company. And those are all opportunities. And I understand your issue or concern about the $9 billion, but I think you should be saying, if you really believe they’re real, you should be doing that. That’s the right way to grow a company. And you look at the complexity of the world, the amount of capital requirements, the SRI initiative — I think that SRI initiative may be far bigger than we thought, and that’s in there.
You’ll be justified by the results, but we’re not going to be giving detail on every single thing every single quarter. And you’re going to have to, just as partners, trust me, I’m sorry.”
[Note: the “SRI Initiative” pertains to the bank’s October announcement of a 10-year, $1.5 trillion Security and Resiliency Initiative that will boost activity in industries deemed to be essential to national economic security and resiliency, like rare earths, battery storage, and shipbuilding]
When Mayo followed up asking for more specific details on AI, Dimon said:
“We’re building more AI systems. We’re building more — we’re connecting more branches, which means you have the higher network expenses. We’re doing all the things you want us to do. But the tech spend is always one of the harder ones to measure and evaluate. That’s been true my whole life.
You could imagine, we’re pretty detailed at what we’re doing, why we’re doing it. Are we delivering it on time? But there isn’t an area where you — if you dug into it that you wouldn’t say, yeah, you want to be — you better be the best in the world in tech. But we spend money on trading. We spend money on payments. We spend money on consumer. We spend money at asset management. We spend money in corporate. We spend money — we need to have the best tech in the world that drives investment, it drives margin, it drives competition.”
“We look at all of our competitors, but those competitors include all the fintech. You have Stripe, SoFi, you have Revolut, you have your Schwab. You have everyone out there, and these are good players, and we analyze what they do and how they do it, and how we stay up front. And we are going to stay up front, so help us God. We’re not going to try to meet some expense target, and then 10 years from now, you’ll be asking us the question, how did JPMorgan get left behind?”
One wonders if Dimon’s somewhat defensive tone implies he didn’t have dozens of ready-made examples about AI-driven efficiencies at the bank that he could easily point to.
Banks have always wanted to be more like tech companies. But prior to the past few years, tech companies have been known for massive profitability and a relatively asset-light model, not as leaders of generationally large capital expenditure binges.
Shares of America’s biggest bank fell more than 4% on Tuesday following the release of earnings.
“Management was unapologetic on investing in areas like new branches, AI, and its Security and Resiliency Initiative,” wrote Bloomberg Intelligence analysts Herman Chan, Alison Williams, and Ravi Chelluri. “Shares have drifted lower during the trading session, which may reflect comments on 2026 operating leverage and lingering risk from a potential cap on credit-card rates.”
