Cathie Wood buys $28.6 million of surging tech stocks

Cathie Wood, chief of Ark Investment Management, usually targets U.S. tech companies. But she occasionally turns to overseas bets to balance her portfolio.

That’s what she just did, buying into two popular Chinese tech stocks that have been surging over the past month.

Wood’s funds have experienced a volatile ride this year, swinging from sharp losses to strong gains.

In January and February, the Ark funds rallied as investors bet on the Trump administration’s potential deregulation that could benefit Wood’s tech bets. But the momentum faded in March and April, with the funds trailing the market as top holdings slid amid growing concerns over the macroeconomy and trade policies.

Now, the Ark’s funds are showing solid performance again. As of Sept. 24, the flagship Ark Innovation ETF  (ARKK)  is up nearly 45% year-to-date, far outpacing the S&P 500’s 12.9% gain.

Wood’s remarkable return of 153% in 2020 helped build her reputation and attract loyal investors. Her strategy can lead to sharp gains during bull markets but also painful losses, like in 2022, when ARKK dropped more than 60%.

Those swings have weighed on her long-term results. As of Sept. 24, the Ark Innovation ETF has delivered a five-year annualized return of negative 0.53%, while the S&P 500 has an annualized return of 17.1% over the same period.

Wood’s investment strategy is straightforward: Her Ark ETFs typically buy shares in emerging high-tech companies in fields such as artificial intelligence, blockchain, biomedical technology, and robotics.

She thinks these companies have the potential to reshape industries and bring outsized long-term returns, but their volatility leads to major fluctuations in Ark funds’ values.

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.

Still, Wood has been bullish on the market. In a letter to investors published in late April, she dismissed predictions of a recession dragging into 2026 and struck an optimistic tone for tech stocks.

During the current turbulent transition in the U.S., we think consumers and businesses are likely to accelerate the shift to technologically enabled innovation platforms, including artificial intelligence, robotics, energy storage, blockchain technology, and multiomics sequencing, she said.

Not all investors share this optimism. Over the past 12 months through Sept. 23, the Ark Innovation ETF saw about $1.2 billion in net outflows, according to data from ETF research firm VettaFi.

On Sept. 22, Wood’s Ark funds bought 99,090 American Depositary Receipts (ADRs) of Alibaba Group Holding Limited  (BABA) , which marks her first comeback for the Chinese tech giant in four years. She added another 63,231 Alibaba ADRs on Sept. 24.

Together, those purchases were valued at about $28.6 million based on Sept. 24’s closing price.

Alibaba, long known as China’s top e-commerce platform provider, is now betting its next phase of growth on AI.

Related: Cathie Wood sells $10.8 million of popular AI stock

On Sept. 22, Alibaba rolled out its new Qwen3-Max language model, along with upgrades across its AI lineup. CEO Eddie Wu said the company will spend more than 380 billion yuan ($53 billion) on AI models and infrastructure over the next three years, Bloomberg reported.

In its most recent quarter, Alibaba posted triple-digit growth in AI products, with its cloud segment delivered a 26% increase in sales, marking the group’s fastest-growing business. Year-to-date, its ADR has more than doubled this year, climbing to its highest level since 2022.

Wood first bought Alibaba ADRs in 2014, soon after the IPO. But records show no investment activity after September 2021, when Beijing’s regulatory clampdown intensified, according to SEC data pulled by Bloomberg.

Fund manager buys and sells:

After retreating during the 2021–2022 selloff, Wood is back in Chinese internet names as China’s major tech giants speed up their AI developments.

Earlier this year, Wood restarted a position in Baidu Inc.  (BIDU) . She ramped up her stake in the Chinese search engine giant this week, adding 104,158 ADRs on Sept. 22 and 24, worth $13.8 million. Baidu’s ADRs are up 58% this year.

The valuations [of Chinese tech stocks] are quite different. They’re roughly half of what they are in the United States. We’re very impressed at how quickly China is moving here, Wood said in a recent Bloomberg show.

I think the Deepseek moment gave us an opportunity to understand that China is very focused on the open-source software movement…Competition is a good thing. It’s a good thing for the United States. It’s a good thing for China, she added.

Related: Bank of America announces huge shift in Fed rate cut forecast

This story was originally reported by TheStreet on Sep 25, 2025, where it first appeared in the Investing News, Analysis, and Tips section. Add TheStreet as a Preferred Source by clicking here.