Cathie Wood buys $16.7 million of megacap AI stock
Cathie Wood, CEO of Ark Investment Management, typically focuses on small- and mid-cap technology stocks. But she occasionally ventures into megacap growth stocks.
This strategy, which likely aims to add stability to the Ark funds, is what Wood followed in the past week as she bought shares of a megacap tech name.
As of Nov. 21, Wood’s flagship Ark Innovation ETF (ARKK) is up about 27.32% year to date, outpacing the S&P 500’s gain of 12.26%. But the ETF is still down 17% from what it was a month ago, mainly weighed down by the pressure in the broader tech market.
Wood gained a reputation after the Ark Innovation ETF delivered a 153% return in 2020. Her style brings big wins in a rising market but also painful losses, as seen in 2022, when the fund lost more than 60%.
Those swings have weighed on her long-term results. As of Nov. 21, the Ark Innovation ETF has delivered a five-year annualized return of -6.45%, while the S&P 500 has an annualized return of 14.85% over the same period, according to data from Morningstar.
Wood’s investment strategy is straightforward: Her Ark ETFs typically target emerging high-tech companies in fields such as artificial intelligence, blockchain, biomedical technology, and robotics.
In Wood’s view, these companies could reshape the world and drive strong long-term growth, yet their volatility leads to big fluctuations in the values of Ark funds.
Related: Cathie Wood’s net worth: The Ark Invest CEO’s wealth & income
Over the 10 years ending in 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.
In October, Wood said in a CNBC interview that she expects to see a market “shudder” as interest rates begin to rise.
Still, Wood believes in the potential of AI, denying the notion of AI bubbles amid concerns about the high valuations of tech stocks.
“I do not believe AI is in a bubble,” Wood said. “ What I do think is, on the enterprise side, it is going to take a while for large corporations to prepare themselves to transform…in order to really capitalize on the productivity gains that we think are going to be unleashed by AI.”
But not all investors share that optimism. In the 12 months through Nov. 20, the Ark Innovation ETF saw roughly $1.3 billion in net outflows, according to ETF research firm VettaFi.
On Nov. 20, Wood’s Ark Innovation ETF bought 93,374 shares of Nvidia (NVDA), valued at approximately $16.7 million. On the day of purchase, Nvidia stock sank 3.15%.
This is Wood’s first Nvidia purchase in the fourth quarter. She added approximately 153,000 shares in Q3 and 659,000 shares in Q2, following a small sale of roughly 13,700 shares in Q1, according to Stockcircle’s data.
Nvidia is not in the top 10 holdings of the Ark Innovation ETF.
-
Tesla Inc. (TSLA), 12.44%
-
Roku Inc. (ROKU), 5.65%
-
CRISPR Therapeutics AG (CRSP), 5.27%
-
Coinbase Global Class A (COIN), 5.20%
-
Tempus AI Inc. (TEM), 5.10%
-
Shopify Class A (SHOP), 4.99%
-
Robinhood Markets Class A (HOOD), 4.17%
-
Roblox Corp Class A (RBLX), 4.12%
-
Palantir Technologies Class A (PLTR), 4.10%
-
Advanced Micro Devices (AMD), 3.83%
On Nov. 19, Nvidia posted fiscal third-quarter results that topped Wall Street forecasts on both earnings and revenue, and issued sales guidance for the fourth quarter that also came in ahead of expectations.
The company reported adjusted earnings of $1.30 per share, up 65% from a year earlier, versus the $1.25 that analysts had expected. Revenue reached $57.01 billion compared with the $54.92 billion estimate.
Nvidia has become the most valuable publicly traded company amid the AI boom. Its key clients include tech megacaps like Microsoft (MSFT), Amazon (AMZN), Alphabet (GOOGL), and Meta Platforms (META). All of those companies are aggressively investing in AI infrastructure, which requires Nvidia’s AI chips.
Like Wood, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang rejected the idea of the AI bubbles.
“There’s been a lot of talk about an AI bubble. From our vantage point, we see something very different,” Huang said during an earnings call.
Huang said three big shifts are happening: computing is moving from CPUs to GPU-accelerated systems as Moore’s Law slows; AI has reached a tipping point and is reshaping applications; and a new wave of “agentic AI systems” is emerging that can reason, plan, and use tools.
“As you consider infrastructure investments, consider these three fundamental dynamics,” Huang added. “Nvidia Corporation is chosen because our singular architecture enables all three transitions.”
Nvidia’s stock is up 33% year to date as of Nov. 21.
Related: Analysts get more bullish on this non-tech stock
This story was originally reported by TheStreet on Nov 24, 2025, where it first appeared in the Investing section. Add TheStreet as a Preferred Source by clicking here.