When Spain defeated Argentina in soccer's World Cup finals this summer, there was one fan in the stands of New Jersey's MetLife Stadium whose vision extended far beyond the match itself.
That would be Mary Callahan Erdoes, CEO of asset and wealth management at JPMorganChase, who steered $7 trillion in client assets and generated $24 billion in revenue last year.
To her, the moment reinforced her notion of the "Summer of Capital," in which three distinct themes have been energizing investment dollars—space, superintelligence and sports.
While fans were focused on Ferran Torres' game-winning goal, the wheels were turning in Erdoes' head about all the possibilities on display—for franchises, owners, investors, fans and the sport itself. The notion of privatizing a portion of FIFA's operations may have fallen apart, but Erdoes couldn't help feeling inspired by all the potential.
"Every single match was like a Super Bowl," said Erdoes. "The feeling you get in the stands, you just can't replicate that on a computer. Nobody wanted to leave."
That's the irony of the postmodern economy, she says: The more that superintelligence comes to dominate our future—and our stock market—the more people crave real, live, in-person events that cultivate joy and human connection.
This creates the prospect of a "barbell" portfolio, with heavy opportunities on both ends, all the way from artificial intelligence to the intensely human. In both areas, JPMorganChase wants to continue leveraging its position as a dominant player.
"People stopped doubting their ability to produce organic growth many years ago," says Glenn Schorr, senior research analyst at investment banking firm Evercore. "They're shockingly impressive, and always in the top growers in the entire industry—not just because the markets went up, but because people are giving them more money to manage. They're doing a lot of things right."
The bank now boasts three different trillion-dollar franchises—equities, fixed income and money market funds. Other full-year 2025 milestones for the asset and wealth management unit: delivering a 40% return on equity (up 34% from 2024), $9 billion in pretax income, and $7 billion in net income. By mid-June 2026, client assets had hit $7.7 trillion.
The danger of being No. 1, however, is that everyone else is gunning for you. So far, those who have bet against JPMC's growth prospects have paid a price.
"Any asset or wealth manager would sacrifice their first-born to put up the numbers Mary has put up," says Schorr. "To run just one of those divisions is amazingly challenging, and to run them both together—at the highest level, and for that long—is pretty incredible. You can get lulled to sleep with the great success JPMorganChase and Mary have had. But it is the furthest thing from easy."
While who will eventually succeed Jamie Dimon is Wall Street's favorite parlor game—with Marianne Lake, the former CEO of Consumer and Community Banking now out at the bank—Erdoes remains diplomatic on the matter: "We hope Jamie Dimon stays as long as he possibly can. His leadership is second-to-none."
While she calls Dimon a "vault" of priceless knowledge, her enviable performance can likely be attributed to one key rule: Don't assume you know everything already but be willing to learn something new every day. "Curiosity wins," she advises. "Always ask seven further questions. It's never the initial question that gets you the answer but by the seventh layer, you really get to the heart of why something works, or how."
