Shell Is Profiting Massively Off the War in Iran
Its profits doubled compared to last year.
Published Jul 30, 2026 1:47 PM EDT
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Don’t worry about the death toll and economic devastation. There’s money to be made!
As the United States launches a “heavy wave” of strikes against Iran, a conflict that turned from a limited incursion into an extremely expensive and painfully drawn-out war, some clear winners are starting to emerge — and we’re definitely not talking about the American people.
As the Wall Street Journal reports, British fossil fuel giant Shell is reaping enormous profits thanks to spiking oil prices triggered by the conflict in Iran. Its second-quarter adjusted earnings rose from just shy of $7 billion the previous quarter to a stunning $9.84 billion in the most recent one. That’s well above already-lofty expectations from analysts, who predicted earnings of $8.92 billion. It’s also double compared to the same period last year, indicating a major surge in profits, in large part due to the violence in Iran.
Shell isn’t alone in the oil industry. Both Chevron and ExxonMobil are expected to report “monster earnings,” as CNBC put it, later this week.
The earnings highlight how major players in the fossil fuels industry are benefiting massively from Donald Trump’s war on Iran, a perverse reality as the number of war and civilian casualties continues to rise. Meanwhile, the American people are forced to pick up the tab, paying record prices at the gas pump.
The Trump administration has extensive ties to the industry and has made countless attempts to thwart the development of renewable energy. It has revived US-based oil refineries and has made deep investments in coal — despite the industries’ central roles in worsening a devastating environmental crisis.
Beyond the oil and gas industry, major banks including JPMorgan are making record profits during the ongoing war thanks to heavy trading volumes as investors rush to dump volatile assets or buy the dip.
President Trump himself has also massively benefited from the turmoil, making billions while in office.
Then there’s the Department of Defense’s many contractors, which are also seeing strong growth in sales and profits. Three of the biggest defense contractors, Lockheed Martin, Boeing and Northrop Grumman, reported record sales backlogs boosted by the Iran war earlier this year, from anti-ballistic missile systems to Patriot drones and intercontinental ballistic missiles.
In short, it doesn’t take much reading between the lines to see who the real winners and losers of Trump’s prolonged war are. It’s a conflict lining the pockets of the military industrial complex and fossil fuel companies — the last thing a society suffering the effects of human-induced climate change and reeling from political instability needs.
More on the war: The Iran War Has Cut Off Supply of a Gas the AI Industry Desperately Needs
Victor Tangermann
Senior Editor
I’m a senior editor at Futurism, where I edit and write about NASA and the private space sector, as well as topics ranging from SETI and artificial intelligence to tech and medical policy.
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