Partner at Yorkville & Ives Dan Ives Talks AI Infrastructure

SPEAKER_1 (0:02)

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Tom Keene (0:07)

To my attention as well, off of what Alexis just said, is the only guy I know that probably already has the foldable iPhone. Dan Ives joins Yorkville Ives. Dan, have you seen, have you held, do you own the foldable iPhone?

Dan Ives (0:23)

Yeah, you should have it soon. But you know, look, I've seen it.

I mean, in my opinion, this could be 5 to 10% of iPhone Pro and Pro Max users that go down that route. And I think this is, it's significant because it speaks to this new era of hardware innovation that we're going to see under Ternus.

Paul Sweeney (0:45)

Dan, give us your perspective on what's going on with CoreWeave here, a lot of volatility there. What's your perspective? What does it mean for CoreWeave and what's it mean for just the AI discussion these days?

Dan Ives (0:57)

Yeah, Paul, I mean, I literally just got back from Korea yesterday.

And when I think about what's happened in memory stocks, we've seen just a further acceleration. So 13 to 1 demand is flat. When you think about what's happening in CoreWeave right now, and the worries in terms of the debt and what's happened with the CDS spreads, I view it similar to the SaaS apocalypse earlier this year. I'm not saying there's not some issues in terms of rates go higher, but given the demand, given backlog, I think this is ultimately a narrative as it will ultimately play out. And we view it, it's been a buying opportunity to buy these stocks that have sold off the way they have so hard this last few days.

Paul Sweeney (1:36)

What did you learn in Korea, Dan? It's obviously for tech investors, Korea has become, has always been, but maybe even more so, so important to the overall tech stack here. What did you learn in Korea?

Dan Ives (1:47)

Yeah, I mean, memory. If I look at chips, we've seen demand accelerate another 30, 40 percent over the last 60 and 90 days. So what that's basically showing is that this is all accelerating in terms of as it plays out, and that to me continued to be the best barometer for what we're seeing in AI. I think we're going to see that in earnings relative to the hyperscalers, relative to broader chips, and that's the rate issue I get the nervousness. I'm focused on demand, and demand is telling you, we are third inning relative to this AI game.

Paul Sweeney (2:22)

So what's the key thing when you're talking to clients, over there, is there, what do the clients really want to get a handle on right now, because this AI story is a fluid to say the least.

Dan Ives (2:33)

Yeah, I think it's trying to understand what percent of data centers could get voided down, what percent of data centers might not happen. Is there going to be capacity?

How is this going to play out relative to numbers? And I just think when you put the pieces together in the puzzle, from Nvidia to the hyperscalers, to what we see in pounds here, to what we see in memory stocks, I just believe this is the tech market that ultimately will make new all-time highs, despite obviously the pressure that we're seeing in terms of the 10-year and some of the debt raises. That's what I focus on relative to the demand story.

Paul Sweeney (3:11)

Dan, is there a risk here that to the extent there's political pushback and just pushback from people in general that some of these AI data centers move offshore? Is there that risk out there?

Dan Ives (3:22)

We assume 5-10% of data centers will ultimately either get voted down or the political, especially as we go into midterms, that will ultimately push them further down. But still, to that point, you're going to have 800-1000 data centers out there. For every dollar spent in CapEx, there's a $6-$7 multiplier relative to the rest of CapEx. That continues to be central to our core AI thesis.

Tom Keene (3:52)

The heart of the matter, Dan, and Ives is the piñata. I mean, I don't even have time to make a joke on Penn State, Dan, because it's so sad up at a state college that we won't make a joke about it. But Dan Ives, 18 months ago, Apple was flat on its back. Microsoft's been flat on its back. Boy, have they come back, come back.

Why have they come back so big?

Dan Ives (4:18)

Well, Apple has come back because, I mean, we've talked about it in your show many times. Investors underestimated that on the consumer AI revolution, Apple could be late to the game.