Episode summary
The Next Phase of the AI Buildout | Bloomberg Businessweek
Bloomberg Businessweek Daily
· · 20 min · Hosts: Carol Massar, Tim Stenovec · Guests: Dan Ives
Summary
Dan Ives argues that the AI trade is moving from a pure chip and infrastructure story into a broader monetization phase, with software companies, data infrastructure, and eventually enterprise customers starting to participate more meaningfully. He says the market is underestimating the scale of the buildout, pointing to strong demand for chips, the acceleration of activity out of Asia, and what he sees as a very early stage of a true fourth industrial revolution.
A major theme is competition with China. Ives says the U.S. is ahead of China in technology for the first time in 30 years, but he warns that ceding data-center buildouts or slowing domestic investment would help China narrow the gap. He frames data centers as “the hearts and lungs of the AI revolution” and says political resistance is the biggest risk to the next phase of growth.
He also pushes back on concentration-risk concerns around Microsoft and OpenAI, arguing that today’s narrow customer base will broaden as sovereign AI, enterprise adoption, and more models emerge. In his view, the real value will shift toward data, not the models themselves, and the AI market could remain in a long expansion cycle through 2028 or 2029.
Key takeaways
- Dan Ives says the AI buildout is shifting from infrastructure to monetization, with software companies and enterprise use cases starting to matter more.
- Ives argues the U.S. is ahead of China in tech for the first time in 30 years, but he warns that data-center moratoriums would help China.
- He says chip demand is running at roughly a 13-to-1 imbalance versus supply, which supports continued capex.
- Ives dismisses near-term concentration-risk fears around Microsoft and OpenAI, saying the customer base should broaden over the next few years.
- He sees the biggest risk as government interference, not chip supply or use-case demand.
- Ives expects the AI equilibrium may not arrive until 2028 or early 2029.
Notable quotes
“it is crystal clear that demonetization phase is now starting to take over”
“Data centers are the hearts and lungs of the AI revolution”
“the biggest sort of risk when you think about what could happen to AI revolution, it's not CapEx, it's not use cases, the biggest risk is just the political piece”
“The biggest risk the biggest risk is government is government”
How the episode opens
Bloomberg Audio Studios. Podcasts, radio, news. — You're listening to Bloomberg Business Week with Carol Massar and Tim Stenovec on Bloomberg Radio.
All right, we have do you have a lot to talk about with Dan Ives. There is a lot to talk. Cerebral Systems just reporting uh falling 8% second quarter revenue disappoints.
Core we're surging after the AI spending frenzy spurred faster sales growth than anticipated with sales expected to be 3.45 billion to 3.6 billion in the third quarter. We've got with us for the next half hour or so Dan Ives. He's partner and senior managing director at Yorkville Ives.
It's the first time I've read that title for you Dan because you know for so for so long we knew you at at Wedbush and we knew you as this what many people called a tech permabull. I want to get to uh your outlook on not just this earning season and and and what to expect from Nvidia and the so-called circular financing. But before we do that because we haven't had a chance to sit down with you since the since this job changed.
I I want to just hear from you why you left Wedbush and what you're doing now at Yorkville Ives.
Yeah, I mean for me and look it was a great you know eight years at Wedbush but it was to create what I view as like a modern merchant bank. You know, really something where when I think about this fourth industrial revolution and for my you know called going in Wall Street since late 90s, it was seeing around corners and seeing the opportunity. And I just felt like for me it was an evolution in my career for something that to build a bank and especially I have great research that's focused on tech, energy, you know, and and really across industries and I found great partners in Yorkville.
From the episode’s captions: roughly the first two minutes, lightly cleaned. Keep watching on YouTube →
Topics
- ai monetization
- nvidia earnings
- asia chip activity
- ai infrastructure buildout
- software participation
Companies and tickers mentioned
- NVDA
- Nvidia
- Yorkville Ives
Watch the episode
Watch “The Next Phase of the AI Buildout | Bloomberg Businessweek” on YouTube
Summary, takeaways and quote selection by Octagon. Quotes are short excerpts; the full conversation is in the episode.
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