Wedbush analyst Dan Ives is urging investors to buy the dip in tech and chip stocks following Tuesday's sharp sell-off, arguing the roughly 10% drop in South Korea's KOSPI index represents an opportunity rather than a warning sign for the AI trade.
Ives contends that the sell-off, which triggered circuit breakers on a market that had rallied close to 90% year-to-date, is a natural breather rather than evidence of deteriorating AI demand, with the firm's recent Asia checks and enterprise AI demand tracking showing "no cracks in the armor."
The note identifies two near-term catalysts driving the nervousness: Micron's earnings due Wednesday, which has heightened anxiety roughly the memory chip trade, and the departure of DeepMind researcher and Nobel AI Scientist John Jumper to Anthropic, which spooked Alphabet investors the prior session.
Ives frames the broader AI cycle as still being in what he calls "the 3rd inning," flagging that ongoing talent poaching across Silicon Valley will be a recurring feature of the AI arms race, with Micron's Wednesday print now the immediate proof point for whether memory chip demand remains intact.
