Dan Ives leaves Wedbush to build AI-era merchant bank

Dan Ives has left Wedbush Securities after a long run as one of Wall Street’s most visible technology analysts and is launching Yorkville Ives with Yorkville Securities. He told Fortune the move is tied to the artificial intelligence boom he has spent years urging investors to take seriously.

Ives, known for bullish calls on companies including Apple and Nvidia, said AI made the career shift possible. “I’m an example of what I’ve preached over the years that AI will ultimately create more jobs than what it takes away,” he told Fortune.

A bank built around research and capital

Fortune reported that Ives is describing Yorkville Ives as a modern merchant bank, a model he links to firms from earlier technology cycles that combined advice, research and their own capital. Ives said many investment banks advise clients without committing their own money, while merchant banking depends on that ability.

The planned platform will include merger-and-acquisition advice, debt and convertible financing, trading and technology research, according to Fortune’s account of Ives’s plans. Ives said the firm will keep a separation between research and banking, adding that he expects to spend his time on research.

Fortune noted that large banks such as Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley and JPMorgan have balance sheets but face post-financial-crisis limits on proprietary risk-taking, while advisory boutiques such as Evercore, Lazard and Centerview have built businesses around independence rather than capital. Private credit firms have money to deploy, Fortune reported, but operate more as lenders and owners than research-led advisers.

Ives told Fortune he sees an opening for companies that are not already surrounded by investors and bankers. He said the largest AI names, including Nvidia and the major cloud-computing companies, are well served, while other public companies are looking for partners and capital.

From analyst to builder

Ives told Fortune that after 25 years assessing other companies, he wanted to create one himself. He said he had helped investors and executives over the years but had not built a firm of his own.

He also acknowledged that the timing reflects his conviction about AI. Ives told Fortune that five years ago he would not have expected to be having this conversation, and said the goal is to build the firm over the next decade rather than treat it as a short-term project.

The Yorkville connection comes with a political footnote. Fortune reported that a subsidiary of Yorkville Americas has served as investment adviser to Truth Social Funds, a group of “America First” exchange-traded funds tied to Trump Media. Ives told Fortune his relationship with Yorkville predates that work and said there is no connection to Yorkville Ives or Yorkville Securities.

AI optimism, with a caveat

Ives told Fortune that AI faces a public-relations problem because many people associate it with job losses and higher electricity bills. He said there could be some labor-market disruption over the next year, but he rejects what he called dystopian views and some bubble concerns.

His broader forecast remains bullish. Ives told Fortune he believes AI is still early in its development, that the buildout could last 20 to 30 years and that many of the largest winners have not yet emerged.

Fortune also reported that Ives connects his appetite for calculated risk to personal experience, including the deaths of his parents after his father had Alzheimer’s and his mother had Parkinson’s. He said those losses changed how he views work and risk.

This story draws on original reporting from Fortune.