JPMorgan posts highest quarterly profit in US banking history as investment banking and equity trading revenues surge on AI-driven deal boom

JPMorgan Chase has reported a Q2 2026 net profit of $21.2 billion, or $7.70 per share, the highest quarterly profit ever recorded by a US bank and far ahead of the $5.64 per share analysts had expected. Total net revenue rose 28% year-on-year to $57 billion. A significant portion of the gain came from a $4.6 billion net gain on the sale of Visa shares held by its corporate division, alongside around $1 billion of gains on certain equity investments. Stripping out these one-time items, net income of $16.9 billion would still have beaten consensus expectations comfortably. Equity trading revenue jumped 86% to a record $6 billion. The equity underwriting unit, which covers initial public offerings (IPOs) and follow-on share sales, saw revenue rise 78% to $829 million, driven by fees from the SpaceX IPO and a large Alphabet follow-on stock sale. CEO Jamie Dimon described the current banking environment as 'close to as good as it gets', while flagging risks from geopolitical tensions, sticky inflation, and elevated asset prices. JPMorgan's net interest income (the difference between what a bank earns on loans and pays on deposits) rose 10% to $25.5 billion, and the bank raised its full-year net interest income guidance (excluding Markets) by $1.5 billion to $96.6 billion. Bank of America, Citigroup, Wells Fargo, and Goldman Sachs also reported results on the same day, with the broader banking sector benefiting from a resurgence in Wall Street activity fuelled by capital-raising for the AI sector.

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