Thoughtful Money with Adam Taggart
Thoughtful Money with Adam Taggart

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

April 12, 2026

AI Summary

5 min read

Jan van Eck, CEO of Van Eck Asset Management, returned to the show for his quarterly market outlook. He brought his CTO, Jonathan Wang, to share internal data on how Van Eck itself is using AI. The conversation revealed a surprising pattern: while the firm’s actual token usage is exploding, its internal estimates of that usage were flat—because the models are getting more efficient and the firm’s engineers are writing better code. This paradox became a lens for the broader investment thesis.

The AI Monetization Puzzle: Corporate America Is Paying

The central insight from Q1, according to van Eck, is that the path to monetization for large language models runs through corporate America, not consumers. Consumers are cheap and use free products, but companies are opening their checkbooks. Van Eck cited Anthropic’s surging run-rate revenue and noted that the number of firms spending over a million dollars annually on Anthropic alone is doubling.

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What you'll learn

  • 1 (01:48) **Introduction and Framework** - Adam Taggart introduces Jan van Eck, CEO of Van Eck, for his Q2 2026 market outlook, and van Eck explains his thematic investing philosophy.
  • 2 (05:55) **AI: The Demand and Monetization Thesis** - Van Eck argues that the AI compute build-out is underestimated by the market, with corporate America now willing to pay for it.
  • 3 (14:52) **Van Eck’s Own Token Usage: A Surprising Data Point** - Van Eck and CTO Jonathan Wang reveal internal data showing actual token usage is far higher than estimated, but API call growth is flat due to efficiency gains.
  • 4 (22:35) **The Corporate Spending Reality and Early Innings** - Van Eck discusses the firm's $700k annual AI spend and argues that the vast majority of corporate America has yet to adopt, providing a long tailwind.
  • 5 (33:45) **Private Credit: The Case for a Bottom** - Van Eck argues that BDCs and alternative asset manager stocks have priced in a severe recession, creating a compelling entry point in Q2.
  • 6 (43:01) **A Fiscal Warning and Gold as the Hedge** - Van Eck shows that proposed defense spending would blow out the fiscal deficit, making gold a necessary portfolio hedge.
  • 7 (49:05) **Commodities Corner: The Roll Yield Opportunity** - Van Eck explains how the war has created a backwardated oil futures curve, which provides a positive roll yield for commodity fund investors.

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Guests on this episode

Jan van Eck

Show Notes

SCHEDULE YOUR FREE PORTFOLIO REVIEW with Thoughtful Money's endorsed financial advisors at https://www.thoughtfulmoney.comWhen market uncertainty is as high as it is now, I often emphasize that the most useful people to interview are asset managers.Because they don't have the luxury of merely having an opinion on the road ahead -- they have to commit capital to their convictions, and be judged upon the results.Today we have the great fortune of having the return appearance of one of the most respected capital allocators in the business: Jan van EckJan is CEO of vanEck, an asset management firm with over $100 billion in assets under management invested across its wide family of ETFs and funds, spanning equity, bond, commodity, digital and regional asset classes.As we've done the past several quarters now, Jan and I will spend the next hour discussing his Q2 macro and market outlooks, as well as where he sees the biggest opportunities for investors right now.Learn more about vanEck funds at https://www.vaneck.com/us/en/Or follow Jan on X @janvaneck3Read Founding Brothers at https://www.amazon.com/Founding-Brothers-Revolutionary-Joseph-Ellis/dp/0375705244#artificialintelligence #privatecredit #goldprice _____________________________________________ Thoughtful Money LLC is a Registered Investment Advisor Promoter.We produce educational content geared for the individual investor. It’s important to note that this content is NOT investment advice, individual or otherwise, nor should be construed as such.We recommend that most investors, especially if inexperienced, should consider benefiting from the direction and guidance of a qualified financial advisor registered with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) or state securities regulators who can develop & implement a personalized financial plan based on a customer’s unique goals, needs & risk tolerance.All the details on Thoughtful Money's relationship with the financial advisors it endorses, many of whom regularly appear on this program, can be found in the following documents. We highly recommend you review these documents as they cover the terms that will apply should you choose to work with one of these firms at any time after watching this video.Thoughtful Money Disclosure Document: https://thoughtfulmoney.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/Thoughtful-Money-Disclosure-Document-12.6.23.pdf?pid=227Thoughtful Money Agreement: https://thoughtfulmoney.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/Thoughtful-Money-Agreement-Agreement.docx?pid=227IMPORTANT NOTE: There are risks associated with investing in securities.Investing in stocks, bonds, exchange traded funds, mutual funds, money market funds, and other types of securities involve risk of loss. Loss of principal is possible. Some high risk investments may use leverage, which will accentuate gains & losses. Foreign investing involves special risks, including a greater volatility and political, economic and currency risks and differences in accounting m

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