JPMorgan Chase bets on Seattle to build its AI control layer

JPMorgan Chase is building out a new AI software infrastructure team, anchored in Seattle, focused on running AI across its data centers and outside providers in a way that controls costs, protects its intellectual property, and avoids tying its fortunes to any one vendor.

Lori Beer, the bank’s global CIO, discussed the effort as part of a broader interview Tuesday during a stop in Seattle. She said the bank is being “careful about lock-in, strategic risk, financial risk, all those things.”

The move comes as business and tech leaders — including Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella and Palantir CEO Alex Karp — publicly warn about the risks of letting a small number of AI vendors accumulate control over costs, data, and the choice of which AI tools businesses can use.

Beer described the new group as an AI infrastructure team but said it works at the software level, separate from JPMorgan groups that build data centers or procure hardware.

She said the group will, for example, develop systems to determine when to route different types of AI workloads to JPMorgan’s own data centers, when to tap into public cloud providers, and when to use newer specialty computing suppliers.

AI agents are one example of where the bank is drawing a line.

Beer said JPMorgan will build and own the software that runs its agents, while treating the underlying AI models as interchangeable. The agentic layer is specific to JPMorgan’s business, whereas the underlying models are general-purpose, and JPMorgan wants to be able to switch among them as the market changes. 

Cost is another focus. Given the option, Beer said, engineers naturally reach for the newest and most powerful model, even when a cheaper one works as well. Systems built by the new team will route specific workloads to different types of models.

The new AI infrastructure team will be spread across multiple JPMorgan locations, but Beer said the Seattle area offers a high concentration of the required skills, including engineers who built cloud infrastructure at Amazon, Microsoft, and other tech platforms before joining JPMorgan. 

It’s part of a broader focus on AI at JPMorgan’s Seattle Tech Center, which has grown to about 400 people since opening in 2018, with a heavy emphasis on cybersecurity.

JPMorgan said this week that it has named Ture Armas, the bank’s CTO for Commercial Bank Lending Technology, to lead the Seattle Tech Center. Armas will continue in his existing role while adding oversight of the tech center’s strategy, talent, and community engagement. He replaces Mamtha Banerjee, who left in March.

The Seattle Tech Center is preparing to move next month into an expanded space at the JPMorganChase Center, the skyscraper that was renamed from the Russell Investments Center in January. The tech center is currently located in a smaller space in a nearby building. The move will put engineers closer to business teams, which Beer called critical as AI accelerates the pace of product development.

Beer, who started her career as a software engineer at a nuclear facility, joined JPMorgan in 2014 from health insurer WellPoint. In 2017, she became the first CIO to sit on the bank’s Operating Committee. She oversees a technology division of about 70,000 people, including 45,000 engineers, with a $20 billion annual budget. 

JPMorgan reported record second-quarter results Tuesday morning, topping Wall Street expectations. On the earnings call, CEO Jamie Dimon said the bank has almost 1,000 AI use cases across the business, with about 50 he described as the most important, in areas including risk, fraud, marketing, note-taking, and document reading.

In what turned out to be a preview of Beer’s comments later in the day, CFO Jeremy Barnum described the bank’s AI priorities: “Use the right model for the right purpose, be smart about open source where appropriate, and ensure that you’re getting value out of it ultimately.”