Dan Ives teams with Yorkville to start merchant bank

Dan Ives, a widely followed technology analyst, is starting a new merchant banking firm with Yorkville Securities after leaving Wedbush Securities. For retail investors, the launch shows how Wall Street is trying to build businesses around the financing needs tied to artificial intelligence and the infrastructure behind it.

The firm, Yorkville Ives & Co., will combine investment banking, equity research, institutional trading and principal investing, according to a statement released Tuesday. A merchant bank typically advises companies on deals and financing while also putting its own money into transactions. Principal investing means the firm can invest its own capital, rather than only advising clients or arranging trades.

Ives will be partner and senior managing director at the new firm, according to the statement. Roger Briggs will serve as chief executive officer.

Yorkville Ives said it will focus on artificial intelligence, technology, industrials, energy transition and infrastructure. Those areas have become closely linked in public markets, as AI development depends on data centers, computing capacity and related power and construction needs.

What the firm plans to offer

Yorkville Ives said its services will include raising debt and equity capital in both public and private markets. Debt capital means borrowed money, such as loans or bonds. Equity capital means selling ownership stakes, such as shares, to investors.

The firm also plans to provide advice on mergers and acquisitions, capital structure and other corporate transactions, according to the statement. Capital structure refers to the mix of debt and equity a company uses to fund itself.

Yorkville Ives said it will also offer institutional trading and execution services, along with independent equity research. Institutional trading refers to services for large investors, such as funds and other professional market participants.

The company said it intends to invest its own capital alongside clients and partners. That feature is a key distinction from traditional research or advisory work, where a firm may analyze a company or help arrange a deal without taking a direct investment position.

Ives moves from analyst role to banking venture

Ives spent the past eight years at Wedbush Securities and has covered technology stocks for more than 25 years. He built a large public profile through bullish views on artificial intelligence and major technology companies, as well as an outspoken style.

He announced earlier this month that he was leaving Wedbush to pursue a new venture. At Wedbush, Ives also held roles that are unusual for a sell-side analyst, a research professional who follows companies for a brokerage or investment bank.

Those roles included serving on the advisory board of Zeta Global and briefly acting as chairman of Eightco Holdings. At Eightco, he helped oversee a crypto treasury strategy focused on Worldcoin, the digital token connected to Sam Altman’s identity project, World.

“The fourth industrial revolution is here, and it needs a new kind of bank, a modern merchant bank,” Ives said in the statement. He said the model brings “research, banking, trading, and capital” together around what he called a major market transformation.

This story draws on original reporting from CNBC.