Months after leaving his longtime post at Wedbush Securities, research analyst Dan Ives is again expanding his constellation of artificial intelligence business interests.

As an analyst and frequent TV commentator, Ives' ebullient views of technology companies have earned him a wide following of Main Street investors. His latest venture, an Ives-branded closed-end fund that began trading this month, gives those investors another opportunity to invest alongside his enthusiasm.

The fund, which raised $200 million in an initial public offering last week, adds a new layer to Ives' overlapping business interests that a Barron's investigation revealed earlier this year. The fund will back late-stage, privately held companies in the businesses of AI and AI infrastructure. Shares of the vehicle, Ives Ultra AI Opportunities Inc., listed last week at $10 per share and traded at $10.20 on Monday.

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

The fund is tied to Yorkville Ives & Co., a New Jersey-based financial firm that Ives helped form earlier this year after his surprise decision to leave Wedbush. Like two tech exchange-traded funds that Wedbush launched while he was the firm's global head of tech research, the new closed-end fund seizes on Ives' reputation as one of Wall Street's most visible tech and AI optimists.

At Wedbush, where he worked for eight years, Ives covered 45 companies such as Apple and Palantir. He held the equivalent of Buy ratings on 41 of them, with no Sells. Ives is now building out Yorkville's research department, he told Barron's in July.

As for the new fund, Ives isn't "involved in recommending the purchase or sale of securities or making investment decisions" on behalf of the fund, according to a securities filing. The connections between the closed-end AI fund, Ives' new firm, and its affiliated entities are complex. A vehicle tied to Yorkville Ives recently bought a 49.9% stake in Ives Ultra AI Opportunities' investment advisor.

Still, Ives' name is on the fund, which could open the door to conflicts, experts say, as Ives resumes his research career.

Kirk Sigmon, a founding partner of McLean, Va.-based KellDann Law who advises companies on matters of tech, AI, and intellectual property, says there "would be at least the appearance of an incentive for Ives to promote companies" that Ives Ultra AI Opportunities invests in, even if that wasn't the intention. It is "ostensibly his reputation that is being leveraged to encourage investment," Sigmon says.

Ives is listed as chairman of the board of managers of the fund's investment advisor, Ives Ultra Capital Management, but the firm says he isn't responsible for investment decisions. "Mr. Ives is not IVAI's portfolio manager and does not serve on the Investment Committee," a press release says. It names Edward Leathers, a family office executive, as portfolio manager and investment committee member.

Asked for more information about Ives' role, the spokeswoman referred Barron's to the press release.

In the past month, updated records kept by the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority shows Ives has taken on an additional title, which hasn't previously been reported. As of September, his Finra record lists him as an advisor to Innovation X Global Opportunities LLC, a private-equity fund that shares leadership with Innovation X Advisors, a Rockville, Md.-based venture-capital firm.

According to its website, Innovation X Advisors backs companies "that possess innovative or disruptive technologies." It managed $4.5 billion in assets as of December 2025. Requests for comment on the role weren't returned by the company's representatives, Ives, or a spokeswoman for Ives.

Ives has had roles outside of traditional Wall Street research for years. While at Wedbush he started advising a publicly traded software company, became chairman of another public company betting on AI and digital assets, and attached his name to two ETFs built upon his research. Those roles were unusual for an analyst; Ives didn't regularly disclose his positions in reports and posts online.

Since Barron's published its investigation in January, Ives has left Wedbush, stepped down from digital-assets company Eightco Holdings, and added disclosures about his roles in social media posts. He remains an advisor to Zeta Global, records show, and continues to provide the research that underpins the two Wedbush ETFs named after him.

Finra, which is responsible for overseeing U.S. analysts, brokers, and their firms, requires that analysts disclose conflicts and limit activities that could compromise analysts' objectivity. Its rules prohibit analyst conduct "where the conflicts are considered too pronounced to be cured by disclosure."

A spokeswoman for Finra declined to comment for this article, and Wedbush referred Barron's to disclosures in the ETFs' recent securities filings.

Ives' fund joins several high-profile closed-end vehicles that started trading publicly this year. In March, Robinhood debuted a fund that invests in private companies; its shares have gained 29%. Two months later the hedge fund manager Bill Ackman launched a closed-end fund whose shares have lost 13%.

Closed-end funds have been around for more than a century. But regulators appointed by President Donald Trump are signaling a fresh receptiveness to new products hitting the market.

Federal regulators have taken steps to promote everyday investors' access to private markets while redrawing restrictions on how managers can structure closed-end funds.