Dan Ives on AI, Tesla, SpaceX, Coreweave, and more

Dan Ives argues that the AI trade remains fundamentally stronger than the recent volatility suggests, and that the selloff in Korea and in U.S. neocloud names has been driven more by leverage, narrative fear, and higher rates than by collapsing demand. He points to a roughly 30% jump in memory demand over the last four to six weeks, says Korean retail and global investors are finally discovering the market, and expects the Kospi to make new all-time highs next year. He also believes the Street is underestimating earnings growth by 15% to 25% over the next 12 to 18 months.

He says the bears are right that higher yields raise the cost of capital, but wrong to think that debt concerns will break the AI buildout. In his view, hyperscaler capex, enterprise AI use cases, and the move from infrastructure spending to monetization all argue for more upside. He says the market still looks detached from the fundamentals and that the big tech names are getting cheaper even as use cases expand.

Ives also treats a Tesla-SpaceX merger as increasingly likely, arguing that the strategic logic, engineer sharing, data advantages, and AI integration make it a matter of when, not if. He thinks the combined entity could be a $4 trillion to $5 trillion company, with Tesla needing a much higher deal price, around $500 to $550, to make the transaction workable. He closes by warning that political or regulatory slowing of U.S. innovation would hand an advantage to China.