Cathie Wood, chief of Ark Investment Management, usually targets “disruptive” tech stocks, and her trades are closely watched by investors for signals on future market movements.
Sometimes Wood will buy stocks on the way down, hoping for a bargain. And sometimes she’ll even add them on the way up. That’s what she did last week.
Last year, the flagship Ark Innovation ETF gained 35.49%, far outpacing the S&P 500’s return of 17.88% in the same period. But as of April 2, Wood’s flagship Ark Innovation ETF (ARKK) was down roughly 12% year to date, while the S&P 500 dropped 3.8%.
Wood gained a reputation after the Ark Innovation ETF delivered a 153% return in 2020. But her style also brings painful losses in bearish markets, as seen in 2022, when the Ark Innovation ETF tumbled more than 60%.
Those swings have weighed on Wood’s long-term gains. As of April 2, the Ark Innovation ETF has delivered a five-year annualized return of -10.6%, while the S&P 500 has an annualized return of 12% over the same period, according to data from Morningstar.
Cathie Wood expects “great acceleration” brought by technology developments
Wood focuses on high-tech companies across artificial intelligence, blockchain, biomedical technology, and robotics. She thinks these businesses have strong growth potential, though their volatility often causes fluctuations in the Ark’s funds.
From 2014 to 2024, the Ark Innovation ETF wiped out $7 billion in investor wealth, according to an analysis by Morningstar’s analyst Amy Arnott. That made it the third-biggest wealth destroyer among mutual funds and ETFs in Arnott’s ranking. The analyst hasn’t updated the 2025 ranking.
Related: Cathie Wood sells $36 million of megacap tech stock
The global economy is not heading into a downturn, but into a “great acceleration” driven by AI and other breakthrough technologies, Wood said in a March 23 Bloomberg podcast.
“We’re not going into the Great Depression, we’re going into the great acceleration,” Wood added, pointing to how past technological revolutions reshaped economic growth.
She noted that global real GDP growth averaged just 0.6% between the years 1500 and 1900, before the Industrial Revolution lifted it to about 3% for more than a century. Now, she argues, a new wave of innovation could push growth much higher.
“We think [technologies] are going to take growth into the 7 to 8% range,” Wood said, explaining that the number may actually be conservative.
Wood also emphasized that AI is rapidly driving down costs across industries.
“These technologies are deflationary,” she said. “AI training costs are dropping 75% per year, and inference costs are falling as much as 85% to even 98% annually.”
In an earlier letter published in January, Wood rejects the “AI bubble” talk, saying it “is years away” and that “the most powerful capital spending cycle in history” is coming.
“What once was the cap in spending seems to have become a floor now that the AI, robotics, energy storage, blockchain technology, and multiomics sequencing platforms are ready for prime time,” she said.
But not all investors agree with Wood’s optimism. In the 12 months through April 2, the Ark Innovation ETF saw roughly $1.2 billion in net outflows, with $40 million exiting the fund over the past month, according to data from ETF research firm VettaFi.
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Cathie Wood buys $6.9 million of CoreWeave stock
On March 30, March 31, and April 1, Wood’s Ark Innovation ETF bought a total of 83,764 shares of CoreWeave Inc (CRWV), according to Ark’s daily trade information. These shares are valued at about $6.9 million, as of the latest closing price of $82.
The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite has dropped about 6% year to date amid higher energy prices and escalating geopolitical tensions in the Middle East.
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But CoreWeave, the Nvidia-backed cloud infrastructure company, is up roughly 15% over the same period.
CoreWeave focuses on GPU-powered computing for AI and machine learning workloads. Its data centers run on Nvidia chips, and major customers include Google (GOOGL) and Microsoft (MSFT).
In February, CoreWeave reported fourth-quarter revenue of $1.57 billion, slightly ahead of estimates of $1.55 billion, while posting an adjusted loss of 56 cents per share, wider than the expected 49-cent loss.
Revenue surged 110% year over year, reflecting the still-strong demand for AI infrastructure.
But the market focused on what comes next. The company guided for first-quarter revenue of $1.9 billion to $2 billion, missing consensus estimates of $2.29 billion.
Bank of America analyst Tal Liani recently revisited CoreWeave stock, upgrading the rating to buy from neutral with a $100 price target, according to a March 24 research report sent to TheStreet.
“We believe CoreWeave is well-positioned to capture share of the $79 billion AI infrastructure as a service market, given 1) sustained demand for AI compute; 2) its proprietary software optimized for AI workloads; and 3) strategic alliances with top-tier AI-native companies such as Nvidia and OpenAI,” the analysts wrote.
CoreWeave is not in the top 10 holdings of Wood’s Ark Innovation ETF.
Top 10 holdings of the Ark Innovation ETF as of April 2, 2026:
- Tesla (TSLA) 10.54%
- CRISPR Therapeutics (CRSP) 6.30%
- Tempus AI (TEM) 5.02%
- Shopify (SHOP) 4.74%
- Coinbase Global (COIN) 4.32%
- Robinhood Markets (HOOD) 4.27%
- Circle Internet Group (CRCL) 4.25%
- Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) 4.05%
- Roku (ROKU) 3.95%
- Roblox (RBLX) 3.55%
Besides buying CoreWeave, Wood also added stakes in DoorDash (DASH), Kodiak AI (KDK), Oklo (OKLO), and ChatGPT-maker OpenAI ahead of its potential IPO.
CoreWeave stock closed at $82.24 on April 2, and is up 15% year to date.
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