JPMorgan Chase & Co. (NYSE:JPM) CEO Jamie Dimon told a New York conference Wednesday his bank could spend $10 billion to $20 billion on an acquisition in the next couple of years, what would be the largest deal of his 20-year tenure.

“There might be, in the next couple years, a chance to put $10 [billion] or $20 billion to work buying something,” Dimon said, according to CNBC.

The comment landed three months after Dimon warned that current asset prices remind him of pre-2008 conditions.

Why JPMorgan Can’t Buy Another Bank

The obvious targets are off the table.

A 1994 law called the Riegle-Neal Act caps any single bank at 10% of US deposits for acquisition purposes.

JPMorgan, Bank of America Corp. (NYSE:BAC) and Wells Fargo & Co. (NYSE:WFC) have all been above that line since the 2008 crisis.

BofA’s Brian Moynihan put it plainly: “It is actually illegal for us to buy another depository institution in the United States. Not a lot of people know that.”

The cap doesn’t apply to failed banks, which is how Dimon picked up Bear Stearns, Washington Mutual and First Republic.

What’s Actually Buyable

That leaves three lanes: asset managers and wealth platforms, fintech and payments, and international targets.

Northern Trust Corp. (NASDAQ:NTRS) has long been floated in wealth M&A speculation and would slot into Dimon’s “core business” criteria.

Franklin Resources Inc. (NYSE:BEN) and Invesco Ltd. (NYSE:IVZ) are cheaper plays in the same lane.

Internationally, Standard Chartered PLC (OTC:SCBFF) would extend JPMorgan’s emerging markets footprint without touching US deposits.

At the same appearance, Dimon disclosed JPMorgan now has 1,000 AI use cases in development, with 50 to 60 classified as significant. He has also spent months warning that Anthropic’s Mythos model exposed tens of thousands of unpatched vulnerabilities across corporate software.

A $10 billion to $20 billion bet on AI infrastructure, cyber capability or a data platform could put JPMorgan well ahead of every other US bank on tech.

Prediction Markets Are Pricing His Exit, Not His Deal

Dimon turned 70 in March. At JPMorgan’s February investor day, he said he plans to stay “a few years as CEO, and maybe a few after that as executive chairman,” according to Reuters.

The board has publicly identified four leading internal successors: Marianne Lake, CEO of consumer and community banking; Doug Petno and Troy Rohrbaugh, co-CEOs of the commercial and investment bank; and Jennifer Piepszak, COO.

Kalshi traders price a 12% chance Dimon leaves JPMorgan this year, and he is at 1% to be the next President on Polymarket.

Bill Ackman has publicly endorsed him for the White House multiple times, calling him the kind of “exemplary business, financial, and global leader” the country needs.

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