Why Jamie Dimon is optimistic about peace in the Middle East
Noam Galai via Getty Images
- Jamie Dimon said he remains optimistic about the future of the Middle East, despite the war in Iran.
- The JPMorgan CEO said surrounding countries are all aligned in wanting peace.
- He tied peace to foreign investment in the region, where certain cities have become financial hubs.
While the war in Iran poses short-term risks because of its uncertainty, Jamie Dimon thinks the conflict might ultimately create more long-term peace.
The JPMorgan CEO said on Tuesday that he remains optimistic about the region's future, despite the war in Iran.
"Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Qatar, America, Israel, all want permanent peace in the Middle East," he said at the Hill and Valley Forum in Washington, DC, adding that Israel should do more toward beginning to set up a "rational" Palestinian state. He said that the countries' attitudes toward peace have evolved over the past decades.
Investment, he said, is a key driver.
"You know what they all want, too, when you go there? Foreign direct investment. There's a lot of foreign direct investment going there, but it won't go there if things like this are taking place," he said. "So I think they realize they need permanent peace."
Major cities in the UAE, including Dubai and Abu Dhabi, have emerged as financial hubs in recent years, attracting investors.
"They can't have neighbors lobbing ballistic missiles into their data centers, thinking that people would put $10 billion in a data center," he added.
President Donald Trump said on Monday that he'd had "productive conversations" with Iran about ending the war, sending stocks soaring, but Iranian state media denied that the talks had taken place. Some market pros have said there might not be an easy off-ramp for the conflict.
Data centers, a growing focus of global investment, have also become targets in the war, now well into its third week. Amazon said that drone strikes had damaged three of its data centers in the region earlier this month.
"Data centers have become the new infrastructure for economies," James Lewis, senior advisor at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, told Business Insider in early March. "If you think about how people are going to build infrastructure, before it was railroads and steam engines. Now it's data centers and fiber optics."