Cathie Wood makes surprising chip bet as AI battle heats up | Official Website of Louis Velazquez, entrepreneur, finance guy and tech innovator

Predicting the stock market’s next twist has been an exercise in humility so far this year.

Yet amid the chaos, the latest moves from maverick investors like Cathie Wood’s cut through.

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Known for spotting disruptive trends before the crowd, she’s at it again, and is pouring some serious capital behind what she believes is a pivotal piece of the AI puzzle.

For her, it has never been about chasing the obvious winners but betting on the engines that will power the tech boom over the next several years.

That said, her big bet on this massive AI stock shows where the next real growth will kick in.

Cathie Wood adds big to AMD stock bet

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Cathie Wood’s legacy of high-risk bets

Cathie Wood has never been afraid to make some bold bets.

The ARK Invest founder is famous for pushing high-risk, high-reward ideas that traditional fund managers typically deem too bold.

Following a lengthy run at AllianceBernstein, where her innovation pitch was panned as too risky, Wood launched ARK in 2014 with a clear mission.

The goal was to go big on disruptive tech before it became obvious. In doing so, she started with ETFs focused on themes like genomics, robotics, and next-gen internet. Fintech and space came next.

By 2021, her powerful strategy turned ARK into a whopping $60 billion powerhouse, until markets rotated, which led to waves of outflows.

Nevertheless, she’s still all-in on her high-turnover playbook, which aims to identify businesses that could double in five years.

In recent years, Wood sees AI as the game-changer of this decade, calling it a “Cambrian explosion” for smart machines.

She jumped into OpenAI early and hasn’t looked back since then.

However, she hasn’t stopped at chatbots, seeing the AI chip market as the real backbone of the boom.

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She’s looking to capitalize on the next wave of chip makers that can efficiently mix performance with real-world value.

Cathie Wood doubles down on AMD as AI chip race heats up

Cathie Wood just made her bet clear that she ain’t done with chips and is adding more AMD (AMD) to the mix this time.

On the last trading day of June, Wood’s team added 356,275 shares of AMD stock across three of her innovation-focused ETFs, putting up roughly $51 million.

That’s far from chump change, as she signals she sees fresh upside in AMD’s role in the AI arms race.

Over the past few years, Nvidia (NVDA) has stolen most of the AI spotlight, but AMD has been fighting its way back following a tough stretch.

Its revenue dipped last year, but it’s found a second wind.

The chipmaker’s top line surged over 30% in its latest quarter as it leans harder into data centers, AI hardware, and next-gen GPUs.

Meanwhile, ARK’s biggest ETF, the ARK Innovation Fund, is riding high this year, gaining a nifty 24%, nearly four times the S&P 500’s gain. Hence, Wood is leaning where she sees momentum; currently, AMD checks that box.

At the same time, Wood’s is cutting her exposure to Coinbase and other riskier plays.

That shows she’s willing to scoop up shares in proven chipmakers rather than chase more crypto volatility.

Since the start of the year, Cathie Wood’s ARK Invest has gone all-in on AMD.

On June 20, ARK picked up about 247,753 shares, worth close to $31.8 million across its three core ETFs.

Then just yesterday, Wood’s team added another 356,275 shares, dropping another $51 million into the position and pushing AMD up to ARK’s 11th-largest holding.

Wood sees AMD’s turnaround as more than just hype at this point.

Its robust Ryzen chips account for roughly 80% of the U.S. desktop CPU market, beating Intel on price and performance.

Moreover, its latest Instinct MI350 accelerator is aiming straight at the heart of Nvidia’s AI dominance. On top of that, AMD’s open-source FidelityFX Super Resolution is also gaining traction as a DLSS alternative, with partnerships with HCLTech and Google Cloud showing its ecosystem keeps expanding.

Meanwhile, Wood’s quietly trimmed Nvidia, citing a bubble risk.