Cathie Wooden, head of Ark Funding Administration, usually takes benefit of market swings.
That’s what she simply did, promoting shares of a semiconductor inventory after it jumped 25% in every week.
Final 12 months, Wooden’s flagship Ark Innovation ETF (ARKK) gained 35.49%, far outpacing the S&P 500’s return of 17.88% in the identical interval. However the efficiency has shifted this 12 months.
Wooden gained a popularity after the Ark Innovation ETF delivered a 153% return in 2020. However her type additionally brings painful losses in bearish markets, as seen in 2022, when the Ark Innovation ETF tumbled greater than 60%.
These swings have weighed on Wooden’s long-term positive aspects. As of April 24, the Ark Innovation ETF has delivered a five-year annualized return of -9.01%, whereas the S&P 500 has an annualized return of 13.01% over the identical interval, in response to information from Morningstar.
Wooden focuses on high-tech firms throughout synthetic intelligence, blockchain, biomedical know-how, and robotics. She thinks these companies have sturdy progress potential, although their volatility usually causes fluctuations within the Ark’s funds.
In accordance with Morningstar analyst Bella Albrecht, two of Wooden’s Ark funds had been among the many worst-performing ETFs within the first quarter of 2026. The Ark Subsequent Technology Web ETF (ARKW) ranked second on the listing, whereas the ARK Innovation ETF positioned fifth.
“We’re not going into the Nice Despair, we’re going into the nice acceleration,” Wooden stated, pointing to how previous technological revolutions reshaped financial progress.
She famous that international actual GDP progress averaged simply 0.6% between 1500 and 1900, earlier than the Industrial Revolution lifted it to round 3% for greater than a century. Now, she argues, a brand new wave of innovation may push progress a lot increased.
“We expect [technologies] are going to take progress into the 7 to eight% vary,” Wooden stated, including that the quantity may very well be conservative.
Wooden additionally famous that AI is driving down prices throughout industries.
“These applied sciences are deflationary,” she stated. “AI coaching prices are dropping 75% per 12 months, and inference prices are falling as a lot as 85% to even 98% yearly.”
In a letter printed in January, Wooden rejects the “AI bubble” discuss, saying it “is years away” and “probably the most highly effective capital spending cycle in historical past” is coming.
From 2014 to 2024, the Ark Innovation ETF worn out $7 billion in investor wealth, in response to a March 2025 evaluation by Morningstar’s analyst Amy Arnott. That made it the third-biggest wealth destroyer amongst mutual funds and ETFs in Arnott’s rating. The analyst hasn’t up to date the 2025 rating.
In a March Bloomberg podcast, Wooden says the worldwide economic system isn’t heading right into a downturn, however into what she calls a “nice acceleration” pushed by AI and different breakthrough applied sciences.
Extra AI:
“What as soon as was the cap in spending appears to have grow to be a ground now that the AI, robotics, vitality storage, blockchain know-how, and multiomics sequencing platforms are prepared for prime time,” she stated.
Not all traders agree with Wooden’s optimism. Within the 12 months via April 21, the Ark Innovation ETF noticed roughly $1.12 billion in internet outflows, in response to information from ETF analysis agency VettaFi.
Within the 12 months via April 21, the Ark Innovation ETF noticed roughly $1.12 billion in internet outflows.Getty Photos
On April 24, Wooden’s Ark funds offered a complete of 215,643 shares of Superior Micro Units Inc. (AMD), in response to Ark’s day by day commerce data.
These shares are valued at roughly $75 million based mostly on AMD’s newest closing worth of $347.81. That is one among Wooden’s largest gross sales lately.
Shares of AMD jumped 13.9% on April 24, bringing its positive aspects to just about 70% over the previous month.
The latest positive aspects had been largely pushed by rival Intel, which reported sturdy earnings and raised steering on surging demand for information heart CPUs as firms ramp up AI spending.
“The CPU is reinserting itself because the indispensable basis of the AI period,” Intel CEO Lip-Bu Tan stated throughout an earnings name. “This isn’t simply our wishful pondering, it’s what we hear from our prospects.”
Intel’s outcomes despatched its inventory increased by 23% on April 24 and sparked a rally in AMD, one other main CPU maker.
Each AMD and Intel have informed prospects they plan to boost CPU costs throughout their product strains beginning in March and April, Nikkei Asia reported final month. In actual fact, CPU costs have been raised a number of instances this 12 months, with a mean improve of 10%-15%, in response to Nikkei Asia.
Wall Avenue analysts have observed a shift in AI demand.
“We figured CPUs had been the subsequent massive bottleneck, however Intel’s outcomes point out that’s already translating to very vital upside,” D.A. Davidson analyst Gil Luria wrote in a analysis observe, CNBC reported. “The CPU is reinserting itself as an indispensable basis of the AI period.”
D.A. Davidson has upgraded AMD to purchase from impartial, elevating AMD inventory’s worth goal to $375, up from $220.
“We view Intel’s outcomes as a precursor for an enormous step-up for AMD’s CPU franchise and consider the structural shift towards agentic AI workloads is creating unprecedented demand for server CPUs,” the analyst stated.
AMD is ready to submit its first quarter outcomes on Might 5, with traders on the lookout for extra updates on AI-driven gross sales and income.
Wooden’s transfer on AMD inventory seemingly displays profit-taking. Regardless of the huge dump, AMD stays one among her greatest holdings, rating third within the Ark Innovation ETF’s fund with a market worth of $416 million.
