Dan Ives, partner and senior managing director at Yorkville Ives, tells CNBC that the latest tech earnings show artificial intelligence is entering its monetization phase, as hyperscalers and frontier AI labs report steady revenue growth, helping ease investor concerns over massive capital spending. Ives also discusses growth and valuations in the semiconductor sector, China’s AI strategy and Nvidia’s financing deal with Wall Street.
What Dan Ives said
Written from the verified transcript and checked against it. Every figure links to the moment it was said.
Dan Ives said earnings have caught up to valuations, marking an inflection point in the AI revolution as enterprises begin monetizing AI. He estimated chip demand-supply at 13-14 to one, with Microsoft standing out as proof enterprises are doubling down, and cited a five-to-six dollar multiplier across tech for every dollar of capex. Ives called the $500 billion in compute financing from top banks a huge validation, though some pieces still need to play out. He dismissed a SaaS apocalypse, citing Silver Lake's potential Workday bid as smart money recognizing value. On Apple, he said the company has been lost on AI for two years but is now going on the offensive with Gemini and Alibaba, with 20% of iPhones coming from China. He reaffirmed his 13,000 Nasdaq call, saying tech remains 10-15% through the AI revolution. On debt-funded capex, he said it's small relative to balance sheets, but Oracle showed investors' limits.
Key takeaways
Chip demand-supply ratio is 13-14 to one, with enterprises lining up for data centers and GPUs.
The $500 billion in compute financing from top banks is a huge validation, though some pieces still need to play out.
Apple has been lost on AI for two years but is now going on the offensive with Gemini and Alibaba.
Tech is only 10-15% through the AI revolution, with the Nasdaq 13,000 call still achievable this year.
It has been such a fascinating earnings season and the tech reactions have been pretty much in various different directions. Very strong, very weak, small moves, big moves. We've seen it all. What do you make of the real drivers of sentiment at this stage?
Look, I think earnings has really caught up to valuations. I mean, if you think about what we saw from the hyperscalers and then the neo clouds in terms of Nvidia's core weaving others, the monetization phase is starting to happen. I think with that, that was the validation sign investors needed to see, not just some capex, but in terms of enterprises starting to monetize going into now the second, third, fourth derivatives. And I think that's why we continue to see tech higher. That has really been a very, like I would almost call it an inflection point in terms of what we're seeing with the AI revolution.
We were hearing from Chuck Robbins over at Cisco yesterday on the network and Cisco stock was under pressure despite very large orders placed. It was 4 billion in the quarter from some of the hyperscalers. And he was pointing to these are very large customers and very deep balance sheets that have been making some of the orders. How much stock do we put in that because it feels as though if something comes unstuck in what is a very circular nature in this ecosystem, then it could dent the demand story. So how do we think about the orders we see today versus the risk that still lie in the system?
Yeah, demand and supply we estimate 13, 14 to one for chips. The reality is everyone's lining up when it comes to enterprises. You got to get your space in line relative to the data centers and GPUs because the use cases, the reality now is that the use cases are starting to multiply across industries. And I think Microsoft sees that from their customers. Robbins, Cisco, they see that. I think IBM sees that. And you go across the board, that's really the validation side. And that's why this earnings season was so important. I mean, I think specifically when you look at Microsoft is really the one that stood out because that shows enterprises are doubling down. And once the CapEx dollars, for every dollar in CapEx, five to six dollar multiplier across the rest of tech. So, to bet against that, it's, you know, it's a that's really been, I think, a very, very difficult bet given we believe we're so early in this growth cycle.
Dan, you mentioned the word validation. Let me throw that back at you because to me it seemed as though Nvidia had validation from all the top financiers on Wall Street this week. Everybody piled in to try and underwrite this asset class that is compute. Half a trillion dollars worth. It feels extraordinary to believe that these very sophisticated money managers would have missed something as they've done their due diligence on the financing arrangements here. I mean, what was your reading on the 500 billion in financing?
I think the worries about circuit financing, you know, we've talked about for months. There's pieces of it that ultimately still need to play out. But this was huge in terms of the validation that I think the market needed to see because you're talking about some of the best banks, and maybe it's the best bank in the world, that have now bet on it. And when you look at what Godfather of AI Jensen and Nvidia are doing, there's a supply demand issue. And I think everyone recognized it from the industry and now from a financing perspective and then really in terms of compute being almost essentially an asset class, and it's not stopping. Because we're still at a point where when you think about US-China, okay, that's really a two-horse race, but we're starting to see in Middle East, starting to see in Australia. And, you know, Europe, you really sprouts of now from an AI perspective, but where's the compute coming from? That's why you look at cost big Korea, you can name memory players on one hand, chip players they're golden, it's really going through a golden age that they're seeing in terms of demand.
I don't see a SaaS apocalypse, right? I mean, when that happened, it just shows smart money recognized the value. I'm not saying there's pieces that for Workday and then Adobe or when you look at software Salesforce is seeing that there's not headwinds relative to AI, but it just shows the value in the customer base and I think that's something that's really important as it played out across software because the SaaS apocalypse and the worries there. Software is going to be a major piece of this AI revolution. There was it today? No. But when you look at the use cases 6, 12, 18 months Palantir at the end of the day is a software company and look they've seen early because they're, you know, they're able to see around corners others trying to follow them. When you look at PE and you look at things that were issued Workday, that's a very positive sign for the market as it plays out.
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Ives, D. (2026, August 14). We’ve entered the AI monetization phase, says Dan Ives [Interview transcript]. CNBC International Live. CEOInterviews.AI. https://ceointerviews.ai/interview/1344973/
MLA
Dan Ives. "We’ve entered the AI monetization phase, says Dan Ives." CNBC International Live, 14 Aug. 2026. Transcript, CEOInterviews.AI, https://ceointerviews.ai/interview/1344973/.
BibTeX
@misc{ives2026_1344973,
author = {Dan Ives},
title = {We’ve entered the AI monetization phase, says Dan Ives},
howpublished = {Interview transcript, CNBC International Live. CEOInterviews.AI},
year = {2026},
month = {aug},
url = {https://ceointerviews.ai/interview/1344973/},
note = {Speaker-attributed transcript with timestamps}
}
