Dan Ives - Panic Sellers Made A Massive Mistake On These 3 AI Stocks - This Is Lifetime Opportunity

This is an arms race. It's third inning in the AI revolution. Microsoft, Amazon, Meta, no one's going to slow CapEx. Can you slow it down? You get ultimately, you know, you're out of the line in terms of when it comes to capacity. I think the most important thing relative to tech earnings, to the market, to these stocks is is demand accelerating are enterprise as is except toward what ultimately means monetization of use cases. And in terms of the reactions, look, I think we've seen, you know, I think investors are definitely fickle and worrying about we'll see maybe patience wearing thin. But guess what? Let's say Alphabet said, "We're cutting CapEx." >> Exactly. The market would freak out. >> So, that's why it's one where these companies are doing every but they're not just spending like 1980s rockstars for no reason. They're spending because their customers are moving on the hyperscalers, on the cloud with AI. That's why they're >> The market is making a fundamental miscalculation. But Dan Ives calls this short-term CapEx anxiety a complete misunderstanding of current market dynamics. While short-sighted investors panic over massive infrastructure outlays, Ives emphasizes that tech giants are not spending like 1980s rockstars for no reason. They are locked in an inescapable AI arms race where pulling back means being pushed completely out of the game. As Ives points out, we are only in the third inning of the AI revolution, transitioning directly into the high-margin monetization phase. Every single dollar poured into foundational compute hardware is now triggering an aggressive 8 to 10 dollar multiplier effect across software platforms, specialized [music] cloud ecosystems, and enterprise automation. While fickle retail investors run for the exits during knee-jerk pullbacks, smart money is taking advantage of an unprecedented market disconnect. Current valuation dips have left high-conviction market leaders trading at flat-out dirt-cheap levels relative to their hypergrowth trajectories. Instead of chasing overhyped megacap chip makers already priced to perfection, the real alpha in this next leg up belongs to three high-performance powerhouses executing at scale right now. First, an agile infrastructure disruptor scaling at over 500% year-over-year revenue growth while pioneering open-source inference. Second, a specialized neo-cloud monster sitting on an astounding $99.4 billion total revenue backlog backed directly by Nvidia to solve the enterprise compute bottleneck. And third, a high-margin enterprise software titan generating massive cash flow with a rule of 40 score topping 145%. Let's break down these three asymmetric plays that are built to completely outperform the consensus as the monetization phase takes hold. Leading off this high-conviction trio is Nebius Group, trading under ticker NBIS. A rising full-stack AI cloud infrastructure powerhouse >> [music] >> rapidly evolving from a raw GPU capacity provider into a high-margin managed inference leader. Historically, Nebius established its foundation by deploying vertically integrated data centers across North America and Europe to supply raw compute power to hyperscalers. However, the company's true long-term value creation lies higher up the software stack. Through its managed bare-metal offerings and its flagship Nebius Token Factory platform, the company abstracts away complex low-level engineering for enterprise clients and specialized AI labs. By leveraging high-performing open-source models that rival closed-source frontier architectures, Nebius provides cost-effective enterprise-grade AI tokens at a fraction of the price charged by proprietary model developers, effectively positioning itself as the premier open-source alternative to closed-source AI giants. The operational acceleration behind this structural transition is extraordinary. Annualized run rate revenue reached $1.9 billion by the end of the first quarter, representing a sequential increase of over 50% from $1.25 billion in the preceding quarter. At the same time, adjusted EBITDA margins expanded significantly to 45%, up from 24% in the prior quarter, demonstrating remarkable operating leverage as higher margin software and inference services scale. Wall Street consensus projects full-year revenue growth of 537% to roughly $3.4 billion, supported by preferred access to cutting-edge NVIDIA hardware and a rapidly expanding global footprint. Furthermore, to overcome massive capital expenditure hurdles without diluting equity holders, Nebius recently completed a $775 million senior secured debt facility backed by underlying customer cash flows [music] that fully cover the required capital outlay. Despite these exceptional operating metrics, a broader market pullback drove Nebius shares down over 35% from their June high of nearly $300, bringing the stock down to the $187 level. This sharp valuation contraction provides a compelling entry point for long-term investors. As revenue scales hyper-exponentially over the coming years, forward sales multiples are set to compress dramatically towards sustainable industry benchmarks. Supported by direct alignment with leading hardware partners, robust balance sheet flexibility, and surging demand for open-source AI deployment, Nebius stands out as a prime asymmetric play engineered for maximum upside. Transitioning smoothly from open-source inference to brute-force compute scale brings us to our second powerhouse, >> [music] >> CoreWeave Inc., trading under ticker CRWV, the undisputed platinum-tier operator in dedicated AI cloud infrastructure. CoreWeave functions as the primary compute engine of the AI revolution, serving as the go-to provider when hyperscalers and frontier research labs need massive GPU clusters deployed at unrivaled speed and efficiency. Backed by a direct equity investment from Nvidia, CoreWeave consistently secures priority allocation for next-generation silicon, becoming the [music] first cloud provider to deploy Grace Blackwell systems at scale. The company has already surpassed 1 GW of active power capacity and holds over 3.5 GW of contracted power, positioning it as an indispensable infrastructure partner in solving the global enterprise compute bottleneck. What makes CoreWeave's financial engine so compelling is its structural predictability and massive scale. The company is sitting on a staggering contracted revenue backlog of 99.4 billion dollars, with approximately 98% locked into long-term take-or-pay agreements with major technology leaders. In the first quarter alone, revenue surged 112% year-over-year to 2.08 billion dollars while generating operating cash flow of 3.0 billion dollars >> [music] >> with gross margins exceeding 71%. While Wall Street has fixated on its aggressive infrastructure build-out and headline debt figures, these borrowings are structurally backed by high-value GPU assets and long-term customer commitments >> [music] >> rather than speculative corporate borrowing. Demonstrating immense institutional backing, a recent 3.1 billion-dollar asset-backed credit facility attracted roughly 19 billion dollars in investor demand, proving that credit markets treat CoreWeave's hardware footprint as high-grade asset-backed infrastructure. The stock recently experienced a heavy pullback following market anxiety over Meta's internal compute developments. However, this knee-jerk reaction overlooks the fact that CoreWeave holds a binding $21 billion take-or-pay agreement with Meta extending through 2032, fully insulating near-term revenue regardless of competitive headlines. Trading around $72 per share, down significantly from its peak above $150, >> [music] >> CoreWeave trades near a discounted 6.5 times forward enterprise value-to-sales multiple. As its massive $99.4 billion backlog steadily converts into high-margin recurring cash flow, >> [music] >> CoreWeave represents a dominant, deeply discounted infrastructure play uniquely positioned to outperform as hyperscale capacity demands accelerate. Shifting from physical data center infrastructure to the ultimate software orchestration layer brings us to our final selection, Palantir Technologies Inc., trading under ticker PLTR, the undisputed software engine of this entire monetization supercycle. While Wall Street spent years trying to categorize Palantir as a niche defense contractor or an expensive analytics consultant, the reality is now undeniable. Palantir's artificial intelligence platform, [music] known as AIP, has evolved into the definitive operating system for enterprise decision-making. Through its revolutionary AIP bootcamps, Palantir compresses traditional enterprise sales cycles from months into a matter of days, embedding its proprietary ontology directly into client operations. Once an organization's supply chains, manufacturing lines, and financial data sets are mapped into the semantic layer, Palantir becomes institutional infrastructure with virtually insurmountable switching costs. The operational leverage expanding across this business is staggering. In the first quarter, total revenue accelerated 85% year-over-year to $1.63 billion powered by a 133% surge in US commercial revenue >> [music] >> and an 84% jump in US government revenue. Even more impressive is how little incremental expense it takes to generate those expanding margins. Operating expenses rose just 32% alongside that 85% top-line expansion driving adjusted operating margins to 60% and producing an unprecedented rule of 40 score of 145%. Remaining performance obligations exploded 134% to $4.5 billion while net dollar retention hit 150% confirming that existing commercial and defense clients are rapidly expanding their financial commitments once integrated. Trading around $123 per share down significantly from its recent highs above $207. Palantir has been caught in the broader valuation contraction across growth software. Skeptics point to headline sales multiples, but they fail to recognize the fundamental shift taking place on the bottom line. >> [music] >> As fixed software development costs spread across exponential revenue growth, free cash flow and earnings are compounding far faster than sales. Backed by nearly $8 billion in cash, zero debt, and expanding multi-billion dollar sovereign defense commitments across Western allies, Palantir sits at the absolute epicenter of AI software monetization. Making this recent dip an extraordinary opportunity for active growth investors.