Dan Ives: AI Sell-Off is a “Gut-Check” – 5 Tech Stocks to Buy Now

Finance-Focused Summary

Dan Ives characterized the technology sell-off as an anxious but potentially opportunity-rich period—not a reason to panic. He said Big Tech results were mixed: hyperscaler capital spending and cloud growth were encouraging, but investors were rattled by the pace of disruption across software, security, memory, and advertising. He expects further volatility.

Investment Framework and Market Outlook

• Focus on companies that can turn AI adoption into revenue. Ives emphasized that established customer bases are an advantage, but said investors need evidence that companies can monetize their AI products.
• Track cloud and data-center expansion, then enterprise use cases. He cited cloud and data-center development, along with adoption by companies such as Palantir and Snowflake—and later Salesforce and ServiceNow—as signals that AI spending is producing returns.
• Assess debt and the health of existing businesses, not just AI ambitions. He is cautious about Oracle because of its borrowing, layoffs, and strain on its core business.
• Expect consolidation among neocloud providers. He sees winners surviving while weaker providers disappear or are acquired.
• Ives said companies have about six months to demonstrate that AI spending can lead to monetization, as investor patience and credit conditions become less forgiving.

Stocks and Sectors Discussed

Positive Views and Named Picks

• Top three tech stocks after earnings: Nvidia (NVDA), Microsoft (MSFT), and Apple (AAPL).
• Five stocks for a five-year holding period: Palantir (PLTR), Microsoft, Nvidia, Apple, and Tesla (TSLA).
• Single tech stock for five years: Nvidia.
• Alphabet (GOOGL/GOOG): Attractive risk/reward after its decline, in Ives’s view, provided it can sustain cloud growth and monetize advertising.
• Amazon (AMZN): He called its quarter strong and said the company was in a favorable position, though his hyperscaler ranking was Microsoft first, Google second, and Amazon third.
• Software: He favored Salesforce (CRM) and ServiceNow (NOW) for their installed bases and potential to monetize AI. He also named Palantir, Snowflake (SNOW), MongoDB (MDB), and Datadog (DDOG) as notable modern-software companies.
• Semiconductors and infrastructure: Ives saw more near-term growth potential in chips and favored Dell (DELL) over Marvell (MRVL) in a rapid-fire comparison. He also discussed Arista Networks (ANET) as positioned to benefit from AI infrastructure spending.
• Other rapid-fire preferences: He chose Snowflake as a software company with high growth potential; cybersecurity as the sector with greater growth potential than semiconductors or energy; memory chips as a buy rather than a wait; Salesforce over ServiceNow in a direct comparison; and CrowdStrike (CRWD) over Palo Alto Networks (PANW), while saying he still liked Palo Alto.
• Apple: He said to buy rather than wait for a pullback and expects its consumer reach, iPhone cycle, and Services business to support AI monetization.
• Tesla and SpaceX: He preferred Tesla if a potential merger occurs, while separately calling SpaceX his most underrated AI stock. SpaceX is private, not a publicly traded ticker.
• Other names: Ives described NetApp (NTAP) as better positioned than CoreWeave (CRWV), but said CoreWeave could survive the neocloud shakeout. He called Nebius (NBIS) his favorite neocloud provider, without making a specific price forecast. He viewed Tenable (TENB) as a possible acquisition target in cybersecurity.

Cautions and Vulnerable Names

• Adobe (ADBE) and Intuit (INTU): Among the software companies he considered most vulnerable to AI disruption. He said Adobe’s markets could be cannibalized and that the next 6–9 months would be important in judging its turnaround.
• Oracle (ORCL): Removed from his AI-winners list; he said debt, layoffs, and pressure on the existing business could limit share-price gains.
• Intel (INTC): He said to stay away, despite the stock having fallen more than 50% from its highs.
• Workday (WDAY): Called it a “price trap.”
• Ives said new cloud-service providers would be particularly exposed if AI demand failed to meet expectations.

Key Numbers and Timelines

• Ives estimated $2–4 trillion in AI spending as data centers and related infrastructure are built out.
• He said 800–1,000 data centers were being built in the U.S., with the buildout expected to take 12–18 months.
• He expects 2027 to be a major year for software monetization. He said the supply-demand balance for chips may not arrive until late 2028 or 2029.
• For Apple, he cited a $400 price target versus a share price of roughly $340 at the time of the interview. He said AI could eventually add $75 per share to Apple’s valuation and suggested 20% of the world’s population could access AI through Apple devices. He said AI monetization would be tested over the next 12–18 months.
• He said Apple was about 3% below its highs and Alphabet about 30% below its highs.
• Ives put the probability of a Tesla–SpaceX merger by the end of the following year at 80–90%. His comment that Tesla might be involved at a share price of “500 or higher” is unclear in the subtitles.
• Asked whether Nebius could reach $300 by the end of 2027, he declined to forecast a price.
• A reference to Nvidia’s “11–12 earnings” is unclear in the subtitles and is not treated here as a reliable valuation metric.

Disclosures

No explicit “not financial advice” disclaimer appears in the subtitles. The stock selections and forecasts above are Ives’s opinions as presented in the interview.

Presenters and Sources

Dan Ives, described in the subtitles as a technical analyst at Yorkville Ives & Company; interviewer Kevin (surname not given); interview published by TheStreet.