JPMorgan Chase said Thursday it will deploy $24 million to strengthen U.S. shipbuilding and the submarine supply chain, a package the bank frames as part of a broader push to finance industries it considers critical to American economic and national security. CEO Jamie Dimon announced the commitment in an interview with CNBC.
The money breaks down as $18 million in loans and investments and $6 million in grants. It will help finance a new submarine manufacturing facility at the Philadelphia Navy Yard being developed by Rhoads Industries, expand lending to maritime small businesses, and shore up regional supply chains that feed both commercial yards and the U.S. Navy submarine industrial base.
The announcement sits inside JPMorgan Chase's $1.5 trillion Security and Resiliency Initiative, launched last year to steer capital toward sectors the bank deems vital to national security. Shipbuilding sits alongside defense, energy, advanced manufacturing, and strategic technologies as a priority category under that program.
Dimon pointed to the ongoing shift in Philadelphia's shipbuilding sector, singling out South Korea's Hanwha, which bought Philly Shipyard in late 2024 and has since committed to a $5 billion expansion aimed at lifting commercial ship output. Rhoads Industries is separately expanding submarine component work at the nearby Navy Yard to support the Navy's submarine build rate.
The push lands as Washington tries to rebuild domestic yard capacity after decades of contraction, against a backdrop of tighter shipping lanes, sanctions enforcement at sea, and renewed pressure on the Jones Act fleet. For owners, suppliers, and Navy program managers, private capital of this scale flowing into a single U.S. yard cluster is a signal that the financing gap that stalled prior revival attempts may finally be narrowing.