North Carolina has scored some economic development wins lately, including plans by biotech and electric vehicle companies. Now, JPMorgan Chase is adding its name to the list. 

“I had two daughters who went to Duke and had a great time there,”  Jamie Dimon, chairman and chief executive officer of JPMorgan Chase, said in a wraltechwire.com report. “[I] just spent some time at UNC, which I think is also a fabulous place.” 

JPMorgan started expanding four years ago, a growth phase that is continuing in the state. 

“[W]e’re ambitious,” Dimon said. “We want to think about the next round of things we want to get done.”

He cited growth in the Raleigh-Durham-Chapel Hill area as a key factor behind the company’s commitment to North Carolina.

“The Triangle is one of the fastest growing parts of America,” he said. “It has innovation and growth and universities and companies. It’s got everything you need.” 

Another reason is the presence of respected colleges. He mentioned how Boston benefited during a tech boom because of its higher education.

The state also is business friendly.

“Here you have a government that wants business,” Dimon said. “The universities here they graduate healthcare professionals, we’ve got great hospitals. They graduate tech professionals. You’re going to bring in Google. And once you have a company like Google come in, someone else is going to look at it and say they have such great graduates coming out in the workforce in terms of technology and AI and people just start building. Development really works.”

Other development victories include a Google engineering hub in Durham, a new semiconductor plant from Durham-based Wolfspeed, an aerospace plant for Boom Supersonic, a new Apple campus, a Toyota battery plant and an electric vehicle plant from Vietnam-based VinFast.