Yorkville Ives founder Dan Ives pushed back on the recent selloff in software stocks on Friday morning, calling the widely discussed “SaaS apocalypse” a “fictional narrative.” In an interview with CNBC, Ives pointed to Meta Platforms as the leading beneficiary of the shifting AI landscape, saying Meta is unlikely to slow its AI push even if OpenAI and Anthropic pull back, ahead of the company’s Meta Connect 2026 event next week. He pointed to Meta’s roughly 3.5 billion users as a key advantage for monetizing AI. META stock gained over 1% in pre-market trade, and on Stocktwits retail sentiment trended improved to ‘bearish’ from ‘extremely bearish’ over the past day. Ives extended the argument to Apple, saying companies with large existing user bases could have an advantage turning AI investment into revenue; AAPL stock traded flat in pre-market trade after its iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone 18 Pro Max went on sale globally. He said investors are increasingly recognizing the “second, third, fourth derivatives of AI,” pointing to Palantir, Snowflake, Salesforce and Oracle, and arguing the opportunity extends beyond the largest AI models. PLTR stock edged 0.6% higher.