JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon issued a stark message to European leaders this week: the continent is steadily falling behind the United States, and financial markets now expose just how wide the gap has become.
At a conference in Dublin organized by Ireland's foreign ministry, Dimon warned that Europe is slipping in the global economic race. Over the past 10 to 15 years, he noted, the region's share of global output has dropped sharply compared to the U.S.
"Europe has gone from 90% U.S. GDP to 65% over 10 or 15 years. That's not good. You're losing," Dimon said.
He pointed to sluggish growth, outdated regulation, and insufficient investment as key reasons why the EU is falling behind both the U.S. and China.
While Dimon's focus was on economic differences in terms of GDP, the numbers coming out of stock markets reveal an even deeper structural divide between the U.S. and Europe.
Market Caps Tell An Even Bigger Divergence Story
The combined market capitalization of America's Magnificent Seven—Nvidia Corp. (NASDAQ:NVDA), Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ:MSFT), Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL), Amazon.com Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN), Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL), Meta Platforms Inc. (NASDAQ:META), and Tesla Inc. (NASDAQ:TSLA)—has now soared past $18.3 trillion.
| Top U.S. Tech Giants | Market Cap |
|---|---|
| Nvidia | $4.08T |
| Microsoft | $3.74T |
| Apple | $3.15T |
| Amazon | $2.39T |
| Alphabet | $2.20T |
| Meta | $1.81T |
| Tesla | $995B |
| Total | $18.37T |
By contrast, the top seven companies in Europe—including SAP SE (NYSE:SAP), Novo Nordisk A/S (NYSE:NVO), ASML Holding N.V. (NASDAQ:ASML), Hermès International SCA (OTCPK: HESAY), LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton SE (OTCPK: LVMUY), Roche Holding AG (OTCPK: RHHBY), and Nestlé S.A. (OTCPK: NSRGY)—are worth just $2.1 trillion combined.
The gap is staggering. The U.S. tech giants are now worth over nine times as much as Europe's largest companies.
| Top EU Corporates | Market Cap |
|---|---|
| SAP | $359B |
| Novo Nordisk | $317B |
| ASML | $314B |
| Hermès | $303B |
| LVMH | $295B |
| Roche | $265B |
| Nestlé | $252B |
| Total | $2.11T |
Over the past 20 years, the SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust (NYSE:SPY) – which tracks the S&P 500 – has outperformed the SPDR DJ Euro STOXX 50 ETF (NYSE:FEZ) by a staggering 244%.
"We've got this huge, strong market and our companies are big and successful, have huge kinds of scale that are global. You have that, but less and less," he said.
Dimon's comments add to growing concern across the continent. Last year, former European Central Bank chief Mario Draghi called for €800 billion per year in industrial investment to help Europe remain globally competitive.
Yet, despite repeated calls for reform, European stock markets continue to lag behind as U.S. firms dominate in scale, innovation and investor interest.
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Photo: lev radin / Shutterstock.com
