Wedbush Securities' Dan Ives has quietly pulled off what few on Wall Street could — launching an AI-themed ETF that hit $1 billion in assets in under six months – the Dan IVES Wedbush AI Revolution ETF (NYSE:IVES).
- Track IVES ETF here.
The Fastest Billion-Dollar ETF In The AI Era
That kind of momentum hasn't been seen since Cathie Wood's ARK Innovation ETF (BATS:ARKK) caught fire in 2020. But while Wood's pandemic-era surge rode speculative tech bets and zero-rate exuberance, Ives' fund is riding something more tangible: real profits, real earnings, and real AI infrastructure.
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AI's ‘Second Wave' Is Built On Fundamentals
IVES is packed with names that are actually powering the AI economy — Nvidia Corp (NASDAQ:NVDA), Advanced Micro Devices Inc (NASDAQ:AMD) and Palantir Technologies Inc (NASDAQ:PLTR) among its top holdings. These are not the moonshot plays of yesteryear, but companies generating cash flows and guiding higher.
Nvidia alone, whose data center business has become the backbone of the AI revolution, grew into a $5 trillion giant in record time. For Ives, that's not hype — that's validation.
Where Cathie Wood was betting on what technology could become, Ives is betting on what AI already is. His strategy leans into AI's ecosystem — the chipmakers, software enablers, and cloud players — that are already seeing tangible adoption and enterprise demand.
From Narrative To Numbers
In 2020, ARK Innovation's meteoric rise symbolized an era where narrative outweighed valuation. Zoom Communications Inc (NASDAQ:ZM), Roku Inc (NASDAQ:ROKU), and Tesla Inc (NASDAQ:TSLA) became shorthand for disruption. But when the Fed shifted gears, that narrative unraveled — and so did returns.
This time, the AI trade is underpinned by corporate spending and productivity math. Ives calls it a "fourth industrial revolution," with AI's profit flywheel still in its early innings.
Unlike the pandemic darlings, Nvidia and Palantir aren't selling stories — they're selling servers and software to Fortune 500 clients.
The Smart Money's Faster This Time
Cathie Wood took a year to cross $1 billion AUM during ARK's breakout moment. Dan Ives did it in half that time — in a far more challenging rate environment. That alone says something about where investor conviction now lies.
If ARK's run defined the hope trade, Ives' ETF is defining the proof trade — and the speed of its ascent may mark the beginning of AI's more grounded, more lucrative phase.
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