Dan Ives files to create closed-end fund targeting private AI companies

Technology bull Dan Ives on Wednesday filed to create a fund aimed at giving investors access to private companies powering the artificial intelligence boom.

The Ives Ultra AI Opportunities closed-end fund will sell 20 million shares of common stock at $10 apiece to raise gross proceeds of $200 million, according to Yorkville Ives & Co., where Ives is a partner and analyst.

"In this AI revolution, so many of the companies leading it will be private," Ives told CNBC. The fund aims to create "a public vehicle to buy some of these great private companies."

The fund, focusing on private, late-stage companies playing a role in AI and its infrastructure, will trade on the New York Stock Exchange under ticker "IVAI," and will charge total annual expenses of 3.1% on gross assets.

Some 80% of fund net assets are earmarked for companies centered on AI, with an emphasis on "private late-stage AI Companies, located in the United States and, to a lesser extent, in non-U.S. companies," as well as publicly-traded U.S. companies, according to a regulatory filing. As much as 15% of the portfolio could be invested in private funds to further gain exposure to AI companies.

Ives said investors have asked him how to gain exposure to private companies that are helping drive the AI buildout. The head of technology research at Wedbush Securities until July, Ives said private companies will be "the golden goose" and lead much of the spending on AI in coming years.

Opening access

Ives billed the fund as the first to invest in private AI tech companies, a group that's largely been closed to retail traders.

About two-thirds of Americans believe they aren't able to access the highest-growth companies that are private, according to a July survey of more than 2,000 adults commissioned by DealMaker. A little more than half of respondents said they believed that the stock market was not the best place to build wealth, despite its rally to new records this year.

"It shouldn't just be a handful of people in Silicon Valley that could own these companies," Ives said.

The Ives fund will debut just as the AI industry faces internal and external calls to slow the pace of innovation amid mounting safety concerns. Ives, a long-time champion of the AI trade, said those appeals shouldn't worry investors looking at the sector's long-term viability.

Leading AI developers OpenAI and Anthropic earlier this year both filed confidentially to go public. But OpenAI CEO Sam Altman recently ruled out a 2026 initial public offering for the ChatGPT platform, citing the debate over adding safety guardrails.

"There's a lot of twists and turns going on in the AI trade," Ives said. "Don't get lost in the negative narratives."