Dan Ives names his favorite ways to play the AI revolution from here

CNBC

08-05-2025

While President Donald Trump's tariffs have spurred worries among investors that they could threaten the artificial intelligence boom, Wedbush analyst Dan Ives thinks it's still full-steam ahead for the industry. "The strong are going to get stronger," Ives said during CNBC's " Squawk on the Street " on Thursday. "Even what we've seen in earnings season, this is an AI revolution. Tariffs are not stopping it." Noting that the global semiconductor market is anticipated to reach $1.7 trillion to $2.4 trillion by 2040, Ives – who will be discussing AI at CNBC Pro's live event next month – looked for several companies that "define the future of the AI theme over the coming years." This comes amid increasing demand for the technology beyond Nvidia's chips, as Ives estimates that for every $1 spent on Nvidia, there is between an $8 and $10 multiplier for the rest of the tech ecosystem. "Now the time has come for the broader software space to get in on the AI Revolution as we believe the use cases are exploding, enterprise consumption phase is ahead of us in the rest of 2025, launch of LLM models across the board, and the true adoption of generative AI will be a major catalyst for the software sector and key players to benefit from this once in a generation 4th Industrial Revolution set to benefit the tech space," the analyst wrote in a Wednesday note. Here are some of the names to play the AI revolution, according to Ives. In the semis space, Nvidia is a clear AI play, with Ives saying that the chipmaker "remains the undisputed leading supplier of GPUs into numerous high growth markets, including gaming and data center applications." Although shares have fallen more than 12% this year, lagging the broader market, they've jumped more than 22% in the past month. That gain has outperformed the S & P 500's more than 14% rise in the same period. "We view Nvidia's intermediate term growth profile as likely to parallel broader favorable consumption/investment trends in these industries, bolstered by ramping Blackwell projects and large private and sovereign AI investments," Ives wrote in the recent note. Among the consumer internet names Ives selected, Ives thinks Chinese tech giant Baidu is a name to consider, even with U.S.-China trade tensions. U.S.-listed shares have risen almost 4% this year, compared to the S & P 500's nearly 3% decline in the period. The stock has also gained close to 14% in the past month. "BIDU represents a major AI player in China as its comprehensive platform offers a robust foundation to develop and deploy these solutions to drive growth and cut costs," the analyst also wrote. In March, Baidu released two new AI models , one of which has reasoning capabilities that the company said rival DeepSeek's R1 model. Additionally, data storage company Snowflake is a name investors should eye among key software names. Snowflake shares have soared almost 31% in the past month and more than 13% year to date. "With SNOW now providing easy-to-use GenAI solutions through Cortex which leverages best-in-class models with fully managed infrastructure, the company is well-positioned to continue building its AI pipeline over the coming quarters by making this technology accessible to every organization across industries," Ives wrote.