Is JPMorganChase’s $1.5T plan a new kind of ‘race’ for the AI era?

JPMorganChase's launch of a 10-year, $1.5 trillion so-called Security and Resilience Initiative has been well-received by the security industry and the business community at-large since its Oct. 13 announcement.

The effort aims to directly facilitate, finance and invest in industries critical to national economic security and resiliency. 

“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,” Jamie Dimon, chairman and CEO of JPMorganChase, said. “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.”

Many leaders in business and the security industry said they believe that JPMorganChase’s overture will lead to other such investments by major banks and financial institutions.

“We no longer have the luxury of time,” wrote JPMorganChase Chairman and CEO Jamie Dimon in a recent LinkedIn post. “America needs more speed and investment. It also needs to remove obstacles that stand in the way: excessive regulation, bureaucratic delay, partisan gridlock and an education system misaligned with the skills we need.”

Dimon said the plan will include direct equity investments of up to $10 billion of the bank’s own capital in select companies. The four target areas include supply chain and advanced manufacturing; defense and aerospace; energy independence and resilience; and frontier and strategic technologies, which include AI and cybersecurity.

“The [large banks will] likely follow suit to maintain their strategic deal flow and policy influence,” said John Carberry, solution sleuth at Xcape, Inc. “We can anticipate these ‘fast followers’ co-investing in cybersecurity, defense tech, and grid resilience, areas where private capital can speed up projects that rely solely on public funding.”

For the cybersecurity portion, Carberry said investments should focus on securing the software supply chain, identity and data controls, strengthening OT/critical infrastructure, post-quantum migration and crypto-agility, and building the future cybersecurity workforce.

A new kind "race" betting on US growth?

Ryan Blanchard, exposure management strategist and director of product marketing at XM Cyber, pointed out that JPMorganChase isn’t donating money: they’re doubling down with a clear bet on long-term U.S. growth by targeting important sectors that will drive innovation and competitiveness.

“This feels in some ways like the U.S. gearing up for a new kind of ‘race,’ similar to the space race, but focused on the resources, technology, and energy systems powering the impending AI and quantum revolutions,” said Blanchard. “It’s critical that for the impact of these investments to be realized that a significant portion of this investment is targeted toward people, including education and re-skilling initiatives to ensure the workforce can adapt and effectively operationalize these investments over time."

Agnidipta Sarkar, chief evangelist at ColorTokens, added that the industry needs investments in zero trust and microsegmentation. Sarkar said in a world where increased cybersecurity tool investment is not reducing the number of cyberattacks, zero-trust approaches help enterprises use investments to augment foundational cyber defense with robust operational procedures.

“The future of the enterprise as we know it is changing,” said Sarkar. “Enterprise gateways will still use various forms of firewalls and the enterprise within will be microsegmented."

Sarkar said any board mature enough to realize that breaches are inevitable should demand the organization leadership to present to them with two simple parameters. First, they must make the investment in cyber resilience necessary to build foundational breach readiness to continuously reduce the exposure to material impact to levels acceptable for the pursuit of business objectives. Second, organizations must make the necessary investment to continuously increase the number of “unaffected” digital business, as cyberattacks happen.

Kris Bondi, co-founder and CEO of Mimoto, said without continued investment and focus on mathematics and computer science, there’s a point in time where we won’t have the needed number of people with advanced skills to make AI advancements at the same speed.

“What’s most important now is to move fast on implementing the appropriate AI-enabled cybersecurity technology,” said Bondi. “It must be designed to recognize and adapt to what AI-created threats look like or could look like.”