Dan Ives Launches $200 Million Closed-End Fund to Invest in Private AI Companies

Technology analyst Dan Ives filed Wednesday to launch a closed-end fund designed to give retail investors access to private, late-stage companies building artificial intelligence infrastructure — a market segment that has historically been closed to most individual investors.

The Ives Ultra AI Opportunities fund will sell 20 million shares of common stock at $10 apiece, raising gross proceeds of $200 million, according to Yorkville Ives & Co., where Ives serves as a partner and analyst.

The fund will list on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker "IVAI" and will charge total annual expenses of 3.1% on gross assets.

Under the fund's structure, 80% of net assets are earmarked for AI-focused companies, with an emphasis on "private late-stage AI Companies, located in the United States and, to a lesser extent, in non-U.S. companies," as well as publicly traded U.S. companies, according to a regulatory filing. As much as 15% of the portfolio could be directed into private funds to gain further exposure to AI companies.

"In this AI revolution, so many of the companies leading it will be private," Ives told CNBC. The fund aims to create "a public vehicle to buy some of these great private companies."

Ives, who served as head of technology research at Wedbush Securities until July, said investors have repeatedly asked him how to gain access to private companies fueling the AI buildout. He described those companies as "the golden goose" that will lead much of the sector's capital spending in coming years.

The fund enters the market against a backdrop of widening public interest in AI investment and persistent frustration over access. About two-thirds of Americans believe they are unable to access the highest-growth companies that remain private, according to a July survey of more than 2,000 adults commissioned by DealMaker. A little more than half of those respondents said they did not believe the stock market was the best place to build wealth, despite the market's rally to new records this year.

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

The launch comes as the broader AI industry faces internal and external pressure to slow innovation amid mounting safety concerns. Leading AI developers OpenAI and Anthropic both filed confidentially to go public earlier this year, but OpenAI CEO Sam Altman recently ruled out a 2026 initial public offering for the ChatGPT platform, citing debate over adding safety guardrails.

Ives acknowledged the uncertainty but urged investors to maintain a long-term view. "There's a lot of twists and turns going on in the AI trade," he said. "Don't get lost in the negative narratives."

Whether the fund's 3.1% annual expense ratio and its closed-end structure prove attractive to retail investors will be among the first tests of appetite for a publicly traded vehicle specifically designed around private AI exposure — a structure Ives has billed as a first of its kind.

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