Squawk Pod California Wealth Tax & Top AI Picks for 2026 12/30/25
Dec 30, 2025
Dan Ives, a leading technology analyst at Wedbush Securities, discusses his top AI stock picks for 2026, spotlighting significant names like Microsoft and Tesla. He highlights the impact of NVIDIA chips and Apple’s consumer AI strategies. Meanwhile, Courtney Reagan dives into the rising personalization in retail returns, exploring how AI shapes return policies and logistics. They also touch on California's proposed wealth tax, examining its potential effects on Silicon Valley and entrepreneurship.
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Prefer Targeted Reforms Over Blanket Taxes
- Avoid broad, punitive wealth taxes that treat unrealized gains like cash without workable exemptions.
- Consider targeted reforms for founder-share mechanics instead of a blanket annual confiscatory levy, as discussed by Ben Narasin.
Wealth Tax Could Trigger Capital Exodus
- A California wealth tax risks driving founders, investors, and billionaires out of the state and shrinking local capital pools.
- Ben Narasin and hosts argue that such taxes can be confiscatory and harm entrepreneurship by pushing talent and VC to lower-tax states.
Returns Are A Huge, AI-Driven Cost Problem
- Retail returns are a massive cost center: NRF estimates $850 billion in returns for 2025 and $75 billion in cost.
- AI and software increasingly route returns to the highest-value recovery option to limit losses and landfill waste.