Wellington-Atlus chief market strategist Jim Thorne argued Wall Street is underestimating the scale of the AI boom, predicting a decade-long bull market driven by AI and semiconductors that will lead to the S&P 500 exceeding 14,000 by 2029. In an interview with FOX Business host Charles Payne, Thrope advised people to ignore the “doomers” and predicted a coming “peace dividend” tied to President Donald Trump’s Middle East stability efforts.

CHARLES PAYNE, FOX BUSINESS: Last week, Jensen Huang said hyperscaler CapEx spending is going to be much higher, much higher than what Wall Street is calling for. In fact, he says it’s just part of the AI super cycle. And of course, the street is looking at a trillion dollars. He says, forget about it. Try four trillion. By the way, my next guest has been saying the same thing, except for a lot longer time. I want to bring in now, Jim Thorne, Chief Market Strategist at Wellington-Altus Private Wealth. Jim, you know, I think the crazy target upgrades this morning, you know, from 500 to 1600, some of these, it just, it just feels like, you know, what you’ve been saying for a long time, but the street and I’ve mentioned this already in the show has sort of gotten it all wrong. And now people are catching up to the idea that this is going to be what you call a decade long cycle. JIM THORNE, WELLINGTON-ATLUS PRIVATE WEALTH: Yeah. I mean, Charles, you’ve got to, you got to think about this and you, and the hard part is, is you’ve got to stay in the market and wait for these moves. You just can’t time them. But look, this is not going to be your normal three-year cycle. This is, let’s, we’re going to, we’re going to roll in the 1940s, the 1950s and the 1990s all into one. And once the street recognizes that this is not a normal three-year cycle, then you can sit there and look like, for example, with Micron, look in ’29, they’re going to make $ 150. What multiple do you put on that? In earnings, right? And right now it’s still really cheap. NVIDIA is still really cheap. And so the street is wrong. Charles, their models are wrong. The gating factor for me is Silicon. As long as fabs don’t increase the amount of Silicon and wafers that they’re going to come out, we’re going to have a longer cycle and, and you know, it’s going to be more important for the earnings. It’s going to be more important for the S&P 500 in the NASDAQ. So just ignore the haters. We’ve got a long way to go and keep invested. PAYNE: So you’ve got a target for the S&P 14,000 by 2029. And I, and I had the formula. AI, what’s happening with the administration, and some other things all sort of together. This is your formula that takes us here. THORNE: Well, it’s real simple, right? Earnings growth are is a function of nominal GDP, and the president is going to run the economy hot. And so if you just assume that nominal GDP grows at 7% right, so there’s like, you know, I think Atlanta GDP right now is 4.5% percent. Kevin Walsh is not going to raise ways to raise the squash growth. And let’s just assume 2, 2.5, percent inflation, you get 7% nominal GDP. And then earnings are a multiple of that. If earnings grow at 10 to 12% and you put a 25 multiple on the S&P now, Charles, that’s up from 22. And yes, Charles, that’s not the 49 that was, we had in 1999. You get big numbers, right? And that’s not even including dividend reinvestment. PAYNE: And by the way, to your point, we’ve already had successive quarters of double-digit earnings gains that have blown all Wall Street estimates out of order. And now if you look at even the conservative estimates, all saying double digits for a while. So again, AI America First productivity boom. And then of course the peace dividend that’s going to come out of this Iran conflict that gives us this new secular bull market you’re talking about. Stay focused on semis though. That’s an area that you want people to remain focused on. THORNE: Charles, this is just like the nineties, right? Hardware over software. Yep. And remember, you’re going to have these periods of times where the crappy names just fly in or 10 baggers all over the place. Quality is going to, to basically lead the day, and Charles, I know SpaceX is coming, and look at orbital compute is going to be massive in space is going to be something you need to get into your portfolio. PAYNE: So I think of the 28.5 trillion, something like 22 or 26, some the biggest chunk of that to your point comes from compute. THORNE: It does. And so don’t overthink it. Don’t get, don’t get traded out by the, by the doomers. We’ve got a long way to go. And Charles, I can get you to 16,000 early next decade on conservative back-of-the-envelope numbers. So this is going to be a generational trade, Charles, that’s going to make the 1990 trade. It’s going to morph the 1990s trade. We got such a long way to go. PAYNE: Jim, you know, I’m in it. I’m, if I had a tambourine, I’d be, I’d be playing it with you right now, my man, we’re singing from the same hymn sheet, but I also want to point out for the audience. You also say, hey, the policy-driven boom will also help energy defense and infrastructure. So there’s also areas that you want to make sure you have some exposure. THORNE: Yes. I mean that, that goes into — think of the 1940s in the 1950s, you know, the United States is going to retool what is happening in the Middle East now with the president trying to expand the Abraham Accord. This is monumental. This is going to lead to a peace dividend and, you know, energy defense infrastructure, America first it, this is going to be a wonderful time Charles, and we can’t allow our clients or our viewers to miss it because of the doomers. PAYNE: Yeah. Well, I’m doing my part every day, Jim, you know that man, I because I believe a hundred percent. I love what we are. And I think this is a generational opportunity. I’m glad to have your voice in this. Thanks a lot, Jim.

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