By Angela Palumbo

Wedbush analyst Dan Ives is known on Wall Street for being an outspoken tech bull, who frequently talks stocks while wearing bright colored suits. As of today, his name will also be attached to an exchange-traded fund built around a basket of AI-focused stocks.

Ives published a report on Tuesday after the stock market closed titled, "Top 30 Tech Names to Play in the 4th Industrial Revolution." The note listed companies that Ives believes will define the future of AI over the coming years, and include large hyperscalers, software businesses, semiconductors, and more.

All of the Magnificent 7 stocks, including Nvidia and Apple, are on the list, as are Oracle, ServiceNow, Palantir Technologies, Salesforce, IBM, Adobe, SoundHound, Palo Alto Networks, and Advanced Micro Devices.

Hours later, on Wednesday morning, Wedbush Fund Advisers announced that it was launching the Dan IVES Wedbush AI Revolution ETF, which is built around research from Ives and made up of the 30 companies listed in the note Ives published on Tuesday night.

As an analyst for Wedbush, Ives covers some but not all of the 30 stocks in the ETF. The others are covered by Ives' Wedbush colleagues; all 30 stocks are rated at Outperform by Wedbush's analyst team.

"Tech investors around the world have relied on us to navigate these markets for decades," Ives told Barron's on Wednesday. "And it's trying to put together an ETF that now gives retail, institutional investors, no matter where they are in the world, the ability to play the AI theme based on our research."

Ives didn't indicate in his Tuesday note that the 30 companies he listed would be used in a new ETF. The bottom of the note disclosed that Wedbush Fund Advisers may serve as the investment advisor to "certain investment funds that track an index comprised exclusively of companies included in this research report."

The research note also said that Wedbush would receive a fixed percentage fee based on the assets in the fund in accordance with a licensing and trademark agreement related to the name and likeness Ives. Ives will receive an annual flat fee in connection with this licensing and trademark agreement for use of his name and likeness.

Ives declined to comment on how he and the firm are avoiding potential conflicts of interest that arise through the creation of an ETF focused on their coverage. A spokesperson told Barron's that there's an information barrier between Ives as a research analyst and Wedbush Fund Advisers, the investment advisor and sponsor to the fund.

When asked how or if he would update the list of stocks in the ETF, Ives said that the basket of stocks would be a "dynamic report."

This is a "decadelong theme," Ives said. "I didn't want to do on ETF that's a fad over a one to two year period."

Write to Angela Palumbo at angela.palumbo@dowjones.com

This content was created by Barron's, which is operated by Dow Jones & Co. Barron's is published independently from Dow Jones Newswires and The Wall Street Journal.

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June 04, 2025 16:01 ET (20:01 GMT)

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