Wedbush Securities’ Dan Ives, who launched an artificial intelligence exchange-traded fund this month, sees software as the subcategory to watch within the space.
According to Ives, it’s experiencing a “golden age.”
“Software is going to be driving … a lot of the use cases,” the firm’s global head of technology research told CNBC’s “ETF Edge” this week. “But it’s trying to understand: Who within software? Just because they say ‘AI’ on a conference call doesn’t make them an AI player.”
Ives runs the Dan Ives Wedbush AI Revolution ETF, which trades under the ticker IVES. Ives’ goal is to focus on stocks that are transforming the AI landscape.
“I believe the market is still massively underestimating what the growth is going to look like for the AI revolution in tech,” he said. “For us, it’s not just Mag Seven. It’s not just those first four or five names… It’s trying to identify names that maybe today thematically you don’t even consider an AI name.”
He forecasts Oracle will be “the epicenter of the AI theme over the next six, nine, 12 months in terms of software.” As of Tuesday’s market close, Oracle shares are up almost 62% over the past two months. It’s IVES’ fourth-largest holding, according to the firm’s website.
IVES’ other software holdings include Palantir, IBM and Salesforce. They’re also winners over the past two months — with Palantir shares soaring more than 47%.
Altogether, IVES’ holdings cover 30 companies that span multiple industries. They include hyperscalers, cybersecurity, consumer platforms and robotics. According to Ives, the list was compiled from his deep dives into major AI players.
“Around the world investors always say, ‘How do you play AI? How do you play the theme?'” Ives said. “All of our research can put it in a way investors could play this regardless of where they are and who they are.”
The fund’s top three holdings overall are Microsoft, Nvidia and Broadcom, but it also includes smaller tech names like SoundHound and Innodata.
IVES is up almost 3% since its June 4 launch. In an email to CNBC, Ives wrote that the ETF has $183 million in assets under management as of Tuesday’s market close.
Ives plans to reevaluate the AI 30 every quarter.
“There could be a name today that’s not on there,” he said. “Six months from now, if we find that’s a name that’s become more and more of an AI play, then we’ll put them on there.”
Ives contends the tech trade is still worth the investment – even for investors who have missed out on the run over the past few years.
“If you focus just on valuation, you miss every transformational tech stock of the last 20 years,” Ives said.
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