We also like to keep tabs on our next guest. As we start to get a gut check on the AI spend, the AI narrative, the valuations, a lot of big tech players starting to report earnings this week and then in the next few weeks. Our next guest is out with a research note calling this week a validation moment for AI. Let's get to it. Good to have back with us on Bloomberg. Dan Ives, he's partner and senior managing director at Yorkville, Ives and Company. There's also the Dan Ives Wedbush AI Evolution ETF, which has some $885,000,000 in assets, up more than 20% year to date. And then there is the just launched $200,000,000 publicly listed closed-end investment fund called Ives Ultra AI Opportunities. It invests in private VC-backed AI companies. He's always a busy man, but he always finds time for us. Dan, good to have you back. Out there in New Jersey. Yeah. How are you?
Good. No, it's... Look, it's obviously been... You know, it's been exciting but turbulent last few weeks. We were in Korea last week trying to get a better sense in terms of memory and what demand looks like there. But, look, it all comes down to this week and next week in terms of earnings. I mean, that... That's, I think, ultimately, what the street engine needs to see in terms of the hyperscalers and big tech.
What did you, though, glean from your time in Korea? Obviously, an important point. And we've seen their markets under extreme pressure, and there's a lot of names, obviously, that play into the semiconductor space that seem to be pretty vulnerable last week, as were US semiconductors. But what did you glean from what you saw and heard?
Yeah. No doubt nervousness, but demand supply 13 to 1 for memory chips. So I just... Look, as me and you and we've talked about on the show, you know, over the years, like, we're gonna go through these narratives. Go back to SaaS apocalypse earlier this year. Look what's happening here. I'm not saying that there's validity. Of course, there's validity in terms of nervousness, what we saw with the bonds and CDS spreads. But the reality, this acceleration's happening in terms of demand on chips, hyperscalers, use cases. And that's where I think earning season's gonna show.
And, yeah, just how important is this week in terms of just restoring confidence, really, in the AI trade?
I think it's very important because in the vacuum, when you don't have numbers, you could have different narratives, different reports, you know, and I think that sort of could dictate sometimes. And I think it... Look, it gets investors off their game because there is nervousness. We're going into the midterms. There's always a lot of volatility around this period of time. But at the end of the day, it comes down to fundamentals. What does demand look like on chips? What are enterprises doing relative to the hyperscalers? And what do use cases look like? Palantir, Snowflake, you know, ServiceNow, and so many others. And that is what would dictate if stocks go higher. And I still believe we're in year three of a 10 to 12-year build-out.
What do you then... You know, what does it mean if we're in year three of a 10-year build-out, Dan, and you've got, you know, Nscale... We had a headline cross: Nscale, Anthropic in talks for a $45,000,000,000 cloud computing deal. So basically, Nscale would be selling computing power to Anthropic, and this deal could be worth $45,000,000,000. What's interesting is, and it could be finalized in the coming days, according to our colleagues Dina Bass, Brody Ford. But it comes after we just had a story about how Nscale's valuation is being questioned, this $30,000,000,000 valuation, investors against the backdrop and concerns about AI, especially the neoclouds, that maybe it's worth about half of that. So do you have a feeling on neoclouds versus maybe the hyperscalers in terms of their security and their role longer term?
Yeah. I think hyperscalers, they're in a total different world relative to not just their balance sheet. Now... And then you look at the enterprises in terms of where they sit, how they're positioned in terms of these strategic build-outs, as well as on the data center build-out. And that's why I think Microsoft, Amazon, Google continue to be in just a different stratosphere. Oracle is a good example of trying to be a hyperscaler, but there's pain with that, right, when you take on the debt, they've had to cut costs. When you close out CoreWeave, Nebius, those are gonna be the sort of champions relative to what we see on neoclouds. But I think you have to separate it out. And look, in the game of musical chairs, will there be some without a chair? Of course. But I think relative to where we are today, it's so early. And if you look at the demand and you look at ultimately capacity and where it's gonna go, even if you haircut some of the data centers that don't ultimately get built out, I still think the street's underestimated numbers massively over the next one, two years.
Can I just ask you, are you invested in Nscale in your... Yes?
So we just raised. So that $200,000,000 was just raised. We haven't made an investment yet from the IPO.
