Technology industry titan Dan Ives filed Wednesday to create a fund aimed at giving investors access to private companies driving the artificial intelligence boom.
The Ives Ultra AI Opportunities Closed-End Fund plans to sell 20 million common shares at $10 each, raising total proceeds of $200 million, according to Yorkville Ives & Company, where Ives is a partner and analyst.
“In this AI revolution, many of the companies leading it will be privately held,” Ives told CNBC. The fund aims to create “a public vehicle to acquire some of these great private companies.”
The fund will focus on late-stage private companies playing a role in AI and its infrastructure, will trade on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker “IVAI,” and will have total annual expenses of 3.1% of total assets.
Approximately 80% of the fund’s net assets are allocated to AI-focused companies, with an emphasis on “late-stage private AI companies based in the United States, and to a lesser extent non-U.S. companies,” as well as publicly traded U.S. companies, according to regulatory filings. Up to 15% of the portfolio may be invested in private funds to further increase exposure to AI companies.
Ives said investors are asking how they can gain exposure to private companies that are driving advances in AI. Ives, who until July was head of technology research at Wedbush Securities, said private companies will be the “golden goose” and drive much of the spending on AI in the coming years.
open access
Mr. Ives billed the fund as a first investment in an AI technology company largely unknown to individual traders.
About two-thirds of Americans believe they don’t have access to the fastest-growing private companies, according to a July survey of more than 2,000 adults commissioned by DealMaker. Just over half of respondents said they don’t think the stock market is the best place to build wealth, despite setting new records this year.
“These companies shouldn’t just be owned by a handful of people in Silicon Valley,” Ives said.
Ives’ fund debuts just as the AI industry faces calls from within and outside the country to slow the pace of innovation amid growing safety concerns. Ives, a longtime defender of the AI industry, said the allegations are nothing to worry about for investors focused on the sector’s long-term viability.
Leading AI developers OpenAI and Anthropic both secretly filed to go public earlier this year. However, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman recently ruled out a 2026 initial public offering for the ChatGPT platform, citing controversy over adding safety guardrails.
“There are a lot of twists and turns happening in the AI industry,” Ives said. “Don’t be fooled by negative stories.”
