Will Morgan Stanley's Strategic Collaborations Drive Long-Term Growth? (Revised)
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March 11, 2026 — 04:02 am EDT Written by Nikita Kataruka for Zacks-> For Morgan Stanley MS, collaborations have become a key pillar of long-term growth. By partnering with technology firms, digital-asset infrastructure providers and private-market platforms, the global investment bank is expanding its capabilities, improving operational efficiency and entering new markets.These partnerships are expected to strengthen its competitive position and support sustainable expansion over the coming years.In January 2026, Morgan Stanley acquired EquityZen, a platform for trading shares of private companies, reflecting its strategy to deepen exposure to high-growth private firms that are staying private longer. The platform connects investors with employees and early stakeholders seeking liquidity, enabling the bank to broaden investment opportunities for its wealth-management clients.In September 2025, Morgan Stanley teamed up with crypto infrastructure provider Zerohash to enable cryptocurrency trading on its E*TRADE platform. Under this partnership, MS plans to allow E*TRADE clients to trade major cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin, Ether and Solana, with the rollout expected to begin in the first half of 2026. Zerohash will provide the backend infrastructure for crypto trading, including services, such as liquidity, custody and settlement. The move reflects Morgan Stanley’s broader strategy to expand into digital assets and compete with platforms that already offer crypto trading, while integrating digital assets into its existing wealth-management and retail-brokerage ecosystem.Morgan Stanley has also developed a long-standing partnership with Snowflake, a data-cloud company that powers many of the bank’s analytics and artificial intelligence (AI) initiatives. Over the past several years, the collaboration has evolved from basic data warehousing to advanced AI-driven workloads that enhance customer insights, operational efficiency and regulatory compliance.Along with the above-mentioned collaborations, Morgan Stanley’s partnership with Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group, Inc. is expected to keep supporting profitability. In 2023, the companies announced plans to deepen their 15-year alliance by merging certain operations within their Japanese brokerage joint ventures. The new alliance saw combined Japanese equity research, sales and execution services for institutional clients at Mitsubishi UFJ Morgan Stanley Securities and Morgan Stanley MUFG Securities.Overall, strategic collaborations allow Morgan Stanley to access new technologies, markets and client segments without building every capability internally. If these collaborations continue to deliver new products, efficiencies and revenue opportunities, they will play a significant role in supporting Morgan Stanley’s long-term expansion.Peers of Morgan Stanley like Citigroup C and JPMorgan JPM have also entered collaborations to strengthen their technology capabilities, expand lending platforms and improve client services. These partnerships illustrate how large investment banks are increasingly relying on alliances to accelerate innovation and market expansion.Citigroup has been broadening its presence in the lucrative private lending business through collaborations. In September 2025, Citigroup launched an $80-billion customized portfolio offering with BlackRock, providing clients with tailored exposure across public and private markets. In June 2025, the company announced a partnership with Carlyle Group to expand asset-based private credit opportunities in the fintech specialty lending space.The collaboration combines Carlyle’s structuring expertise with Citigroup’s SPRINT (Spread Products Investment in Technologies) team and market reach to co-invest in tailored financing solutions.JPMorgan has collaborated with fintech firms to enhance lending and payments capabilities. For example, the bank partnered with OnDeck to streamline small-business lending. By using OnDeck’s digital loan-processing technology, JPMorgan has been able to speed up approval times and improve access to credit for small businesses, strengthening its position in the commercial lending market.In the past six months, the company’s shares have gained 2.5% against the industry’s 2.4% decline. Image Source: Zacks Investment Research From a valuation standpoint, MS trades at a 12-month forward price-to-earnings (P/E) of 14.27X, above the industry average of 13.03X. Image Source: Zacks Investment Research The Zacks Consensus Estimate for Morgan Stanley’s 2026 earnings suggests an 8.6% rise on a year-over-year basis, while 2027 earnings are expected to grow 7%. In the past 30 days, earnings estimates for 2026 and 2027 have moved upward. Image Source: Zacks Investment Research Currently, MS carries a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.(We are reissuing this article to correct a mistake. The original article issued on March 10, 2026, should no longer be relied upon.) Quantum Computing is the next technological revolution, and it could be even more advanced than AI. While some believed the technology was years away, it is already present and moving fast. Large hyperscalers, such as Microsoft, Google, Amazon, Oracle, and even Meta and Tesla, are scrambling to integrate quantum computing into their infrastructure.
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