Cathie Wood's ARK Invest predicts AI, other tech's great acceleration

Investors seeking the next compelling opportunity should consider the transformative forces of artificial intelligence and other technologies that are set to gain more power in the coming years.

For the last 10 years Cathie Wood’s ARK Invest has published its flagship research report on technologies poised to reshape the global economy, and ‘Big Ideas 2026’ places AI firmly at the center of what’s ahead.  

Synthesising insights from both public and private market engagements, the analysis suggests that a fresh cycle of innovation, propelled by converging technologies, could be the backbone of outsized returns in the years ahead, fuelled by what it calls ‘The Great Acceleration’ which is a period where AI and other novel infrastructure technologies are co-accelerating economic growth.

While traditional market cycles have often hinged on incremental improvements, this acceleration is rooted in systemic shifts from data architecture to automation, and beyond and may lift productivity and value creation more rapidly than conventional wisdom expects.

“Big Ideas is not a report reacting to markets,” notes Wood, “It is about identifying step-function change before it becomes obvious. Over the past decade, we’ve seen how investors often underestimated the most transformative innovations because they did not fit shorter-term prevailing narratives.”

For investors and their advisors evaluating where the next phase of growth might originate, ARK’s research reframes the investment landscape not in sectors but in innovation platforms:

• AI and Next-Gen Compute: The building blocks of this decade’s growth are not just smarter algorithms, but the entire infrastructure stack — including specialised compute, data centres, and tools that enable generative and autonomous systems at scale.
• Reinvented Economic Engines: Technologies such as robotics, automation, and space systems (including reusable rockets — which the report notes could have outsized effects on logistics and beyond) are transforming the cost and speed of deploying capital, goods, and services.
• Cross-Sector Convergence: Rather than isolated trends, ARK’s analysis highlights how innovations amplify one another. For example, AI advances catalyse new data centre demand; automation expands total addressable markets for robotics; and blockchain infrastructure reshapes financial coordination.

ARK’s framing positions these platforms not simply as “themes” but as investment ecosystems where early commitment could result in disproportionate value capture. One recurrent message in the decade of the Big Ideas reports is that identifying leaders, enablers, and beneficiaries of disruptive innovation before the market consensus does remains a critical edge for forward-looking portfolios.

The research stresses that while the future “doesn’t arrive all at once,” those who recognise these structural shifts early stand to “own what’s next.”