Jan van Eck

Companies Are Using More AI While Spending Less – The Bear Case For Anthropic

• Top takeaway The guest calls Anthropic "a little bit too hot" and argues that once a model vendor is visibly making money and talking about it, it becomes a target for competitors.
• He lays out four headwinds for Anthropic: corporate buyers are cutting costs, competition in models is intensifying, industry and government voices question whether the vendor can be trusted, and large customers are moving to control their own compute to protect client data and intellectual property.
• He uses VanEck's own numbers as evidence that usage and revenue can diverge, noting token usage doubled in the three months to July 2026 while spending on AI models levelled off.
• He estimates roughly half of VanEck's AI work could be handled by cheaper models such as Google's, and says free models still require compute but at a fraction of the cost, so moving simple traffic elsewhere cuts the bill.
• He argues Chinese open-source models have caught up with Claude, and that using more than one model, matched to the task, is becoming the better default.

The Equity Markets Are Insane Right Now | Jan van Eck

• Top takeaway The guest's top point is to stay fully invested and keep the AI trade overweight: he argues the run-up in semiconductors and memory stocks is backed by earnings rather than speculation, and citing J.P. Morgan data says the top 10 S&P names trade at about 21.6x forward earnings versus a roughly 20.8x average for the period, so earnings are rising in step with market caps and the valuation has gone from 'flashing yellow' to 'flashing green'.
• He says compute demand is still growing roughly five or six times a year while supply is not keeping up, so the shortage looks 'a ways out', and he sorts AI names by who owns the stack: vertically integrated players such as Alphabet, Amazon and SpaceX are 'hot', while Intel, Cerebras and the memory makers look potentially vulnerable because most of their profit comes from price hikes rather than volume and their moat may not hold in five years.
• He is absolutely bullish on the commodity complex as the 'AI 2.0' trade — 'the old world supplies the new world' — naming copper, nuclear power helped by a bipartisan policy shift, and data-center-linked independent power producers as beneficiaries of the capex build-out, while noting some of those segments have already paused.
• On Anthropic he says this is 'a little bit too hot' and lists four risks: cost-conscious corporate customers, model competition with near-parity Chinese open-source alternatives, trust and ethics accusations from both government and a competing CEO, and large customers taking back control of their own compute; he says none of this is priced into Anthropic's private-equity offerings and expects a revenue surprise within 12 months.
• He separates time horizons: BDCs and alternative asset managers (Blue Owl at a yield near 9%, Ares) are tactical buys, while India, gold and Bitcoin are 10-year trades, with gold an Asian wealth story rather than an inflation hedge; his three 10-year trends are AI, the rise of India and US government overspending, and on macro he sees little to worry about beyond a healthy labor market, a 5.8% fiscal-year deficit with interest expense up 10% year over year, and Social Security running dry in 2032 rather than 2033.

Jan van Eck argues today's extreme equity valuations are backed by AI profit growth, not speculation, so he sees no reason to cut stock exposure. He frames copper, nuclear power and independent power producers as the old world supplying AI data centers, and calls that shortage-driven demand sustainable. On gold, he argues price moves track Asian wealth sentiment rather than US inflation, which explains this year's dip after the Strait of Hormuz closure. He sorts his calls by horizon: gold, India and Bitcoin are decade-long holdings, while business development companies and alternative managers are one-year income plays. Macro risks look contained in his view: a less interventionist Fed, a healthy labor market, and federal interest expense rising faster than defense spending.

VanEck's Q2 2026 Market Outlook: Time To Bargain Hunt | Jan van Eck

AI compute capex remains locked in through 2026-2027 as hyperscalers commit massive spending, with corporate monetization accelerating and token consumption growing exponentially at VanEck internally. Private credit presents a compelling bargain hunting opportunity, with BDCs offering structurally superior yields and alternative asset managers like Ares and Blue Owl experiencing deep corrections. Gold's long-term bull case remains intact despite short-term volatility from geopolitical events, supported by U.S. fiscal deficit risks, rising defense spending, and commodities serving as inflation hedges.