Dan Ives just made a massive call that cuts straight through the noise on tech stock volatility.

In an appearance on CNBC this week, the Wedbush tech analyst delivered an urgent message, layering his unshaken AI thesis onto a powerful signal.

Despite the market’s sluggishness, Ives predicts tech stocks could climb another 15% this year. Though investors are still in “show me” mode with AI and the broader tech space, the veteran analyst believes we’re in the “third inning” call, and the dynamic just switched up in a big way.

According to Ives, “We’re in the third inning of this nine-inning game relative to AI, and that’s bullish.”

The hyperscaler earnings are the real test, and he’s predicting beats across the board.

Hence, if Amazon, Google, and Microsoft raise AI infrastructure spending when they report, the monetization fears that punished Microsoft can start to unwind.

For chip makers in particular, the setup could be a game-changer.

• Hyperscaler capex beats: “I think what you’re gonna see is not just a reiteration of CapEx. Monetization is starting to happen from an AI perspective,” Ives said.

• Broadening AI demand: Cisco and Dell are seeing lifts directly tied to the Nvidia multiplier.

• The chip multiplier: With demand outstripping supply 12-to-1, every Nvidia sale triggers $8–$10 of parallel ecosystem spending.

• Palantir’s enterprise momentum: Ives named it his top non-Mag Seven pick.

• Intel’s resurrection: A comeback in CPU demand for AI inference adds a fresh leg to the semiconductor story.

When CNBC asked Ives to name his favorite tech stock outside the mega-caps, he didn’t hesitate.

“That’s at the epicenter. That’s, I believe, a trillion-dollar market cap in the next two or three years,” he said.

More AI:

A trillion-dollar Palantir is the kind of call that either cements a reputation or hangs it. Ives seems entirely comfortable with that risk.

For some color, Palantir stock has had an incredibly rough year in the markets. According to Seeking Alpha, the stock tanked 20% year-to-date, and over 22%| in the past six months. In the past month alone, it has shed almost 8% in value.

Palantir is the latest to be rewarded in Ives’s play on the semiconductor ecosystem, but his thesis goes much deeper.

Earlier this year, he extended his thesis to Cisco and Dell, calling them some of the direct beneficiaries of Nvidia.

He linked it to the hyperscaler build-out, bringing in context on cloud spending, enterprise AI spending, and supply checks in Asia.

Ives delved deeper into the chipspotting adventure via Intel’s rebirth of the CPU through the monetization of the AI copilots and the fact that for every $1 spent on Nvidia chips, $8 to $10 get spent in the rest of tech.

Beyond the Mag Seven, he is also watching enterprise software growth in companies like Palantir that feed into the AI effort.

Also, his supply-and-demand data, collected from a recent Asia tour, reveal a 12-to-1 imbalance in orders that he claims can sustain demand for much longer than the crowd assumes.

For perspective, Ives’ bull case first emerged with his hyperscaler capex call and has since gained traction, offering a framework that views sell-offs as noise and sees AI enterprise adoption continuing to accelerate.

Moreover, his demand data now stretches to a 12-to-1 ratio, a massive flex that means Nvidia’s ecosystem will create far more sequential revenue tailwinds than the market is pricing in.

According to Ives, “I think what you’re gonna see is not just a reiteration of CapEx. Monetization is starting to happen from an AI perspective.”

• $8-$10 multiplier: For every dollar spent on Nvidia chips, Ives estimates an $8 to $10 ripple effect across technology.

• 12-to-1 supply gap: Based on his Asia checks, demand for Nvidia chips is outpacing supply by a factor of 12, meaning the pipeline isn’t cooling off.

• 15% upside: Ives told CNBC tech stocks could climb another 15% this year, anchored to the AI buildout that “hasn’t even reached halftime.”

Even after the recent rally, Big Tech’s 2026 scorecard is anything but uniform, though Yahoo Finance data paints a far brighter picture than earlier third-party estimates suggested. Here’s where the Magnificent Seven stand year-to-date as of late April, according to Barchart data.

• Amazon (AMZN): +14.37%.

• Nvidia (NVDA): +11.67%.

• Alphabet (GOOGL): +10.03%.

• Meta Platforms (META): +2.26%.       

• Apple (AAPL): -0.29%.

• Microsoft (MSFT): -12.20%.

• Tesla (TSLA): -16.33%.

Related: Morgan Stanley issues blunt take on Tesla stock after earnings

This story was originally published by TheStreet on Apr 26, 2026, where it first appeared in the Investing section. Add TheStreet as a Preferred Source by clicking here.