Cathie Wood is an investing legend at this point.
She is not your average run-of-the-mill manager. When she talks, the investment world tends to sit back and listen. Her strategy is not to win the next quarter for ARK Innovation ETF (ARKK); instead, she wants to win the next five-year technology cycle.
It’s the kind of approach where wins are earned and don’t come in smoothly, and losses can look ugly right before the story changes.
Wood described her strategy, in simple terms, during a TIME interview.
And when the market goes risk-off? That is the unique aspect of her investment strategy. She says that is when ARK goes all in, preferring a more aggressive approach: “Typically, we lean into it, and this time is no exception.”
That unique worldview keeps the focus on the same two “future of finance + future of compute” choke points.
- Stablecoins and regulated crypto rails (the boring, high-volume plumbing behind the speculation)
- AI capacity (the compute constraints that determine who can scale what, and how quickly)
Wood’s own words regarding stablecoins lay everything out. She points to their sheer throughput: “Stablecoins… the transaction value… was $15 trillion last year — that was more than either Visa or MasterCard.”
So, if you want to know what ARK thinks will happen next, it’s not just “crypto up” or “AI up.” It’s adoption, distribution, and infrastructure that quietly collect tolls if these elements become embedded within our financial infrastructure.
Cathie Wood’s ARKK makes a quiet rotation that could surprise investors.
Photo by Bloomberg on Getty Images
What the numbers said (Feb. 11, intraday)
ARKK was changing hands around $70.17, down about 2.9%, after opening $72.73 and hitting an intraday low of $69.36, based on the latest trade timestamp in the data.
The tape looked calmer at the surface:
But the risk appetite tells were louder:
That’s where ARKK tends to lose money: When software and smaller growth slow down, ARKK often makes the move bigger.
The “why” behind Wood’s volatility tolerance
Wood’s pitch is basic.
For the legendary investor, innovation doesn’t move in straight lines. And the risk-off periods are where you make money. If you are early, you will likely make the most money.
Fund manager buys and sells
- Cathie Wood sells $40 million of megacap tech stock
- Jim Cramer issues blunt 5-word verdict on Nvidia stock
- Longtime fund manager’s 2-word stock-market prediction for 2026
Cathie believes that traditional managers often adhere closely to benchmarks. Her comments indicate that this is particularly true when it comes to risk-off environments.
This means ARK essentially becomes the other side of that trade. Traders might be offloading ARK-style names; however, ARK will make the contrarian view.
She also told a personal story that explains why she remains tenacious amid drawdowns. Even when ARK’s tactics were on the back foot, people still came up to them and thanked them for helping pay for school or making their lives better.
This kind of thinking led to the latest posture.
What Cathie Wood is buying
Crypto “rails”: stablecoins, exchanges, retail distribution
ARK approaches crypto in a very cerebral fashion. At the heart of the investment strategy lies a very specific notion.
The infrastructure layer of crypto is what ARK is targeting. Businesses stand to benefit from it if crypto becomes more regulated and accepted in everyday, traditional finance.
Trade receipts
- Circle (CRCL): ARK bought about $30.5 million worth of Circle shares on a down day in November, CoinDesk reported.
- Bullish (BLSH) versus Coinbase (COIN): ARK bought 716,030 bullish shares (about $17.83 million) while selling 119,236 Coinbase shares (about $17.42 million).
What is the forward-looking aspect of these purchases? ARK isn’t just targeting crypto prices; it’s leaning into the pipes of the crypto revolution. These are the “toll roads” that grow if usage and settlement expand.
ARK’s own research reinforces this “plumbing” view. Stablecoin transaction value surpassed Visa and Mastercard globally (based on its analysis of external datasets).
And the headline quote from Wood is the tell, the punchline that everyone is watching for: “$15 trillion… more than either Visa or MasterCard.”
AI compute: the capacity buildout trade
Wood is also leaning into AI’s “hard part.”
Essentially, this is a pick-and-shovel trajectory, as far as she is concerned. Compute, infrastructure, and the supply chain are the battleground.
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Trade receipts
- AMD (AMD): ARK bought 141,108 shares valued at about $28.2 million after a sharp post-earnings drop, Barron’s reported.
- CoreWeave (CRWV): ARK disclosed a large CoreWeave buy in late November (hundreds of thousands of shares) as part of its AI infrastructure push.
What is the tell here? There may be actual demand for AI, but the stocks might still go up in smoke in the near term. Wood’s willingness to purchase into such air pockets shows that she is betting on scarcity and use over time.
Another important element that Wood highlights in her discussions is that “artificial intelligence training costs are dropping at a 60% rate per year.” So the declining cost of AI is also something to note when it comes to investing.
“AI in biology”: data moats in health care
Now, let’s talk about a longstanding conviction with ARK: Health care is quickly becoming an information science.
Wood is enthusiastic about DNA sequencing, saying it “is going to transform healthcare completely.”
Here’s the tell that looks ahead: These bets aren’t for the next quarter. They are about whether businesses can turn their own data into repeatable sources of income (like tests, tools, and therapies) and protect that moat.
What it all means: an ARKK integrated thesis
ARK’s purchase over the last six months reads like a very specific forecast.
- Money rails are being rebuilt (stablecoins + compliant exchanges + retail distribution)
- Compute is the new bottleneck (AI capacity + infrastructure)
- Data becomes the moat (especially in biology and health care)
Wood wants, essentially in my mind, to take investors on a journey. She envisions a massive payoff in the coming five years, on the back of disruptive technology. Her thesis is that things will not remain the same.
The status quo is going to change; it’s just that not everyone is clued in. That’s what Cathie Wood’s moves predict.
What’s an investor to do? For one thing, you need not buy into the magnitude. But one can understand the positioning. ARK wants to invest in the stack’s parts that will win if adoption continues to compound.
ARKK’s forward-looking watch list
If you’re observing ARKK through Wood’s positioning lens, here are the tells.
- Stablecoin adoption + regulation headlines: Usage and policy clarity matter more than “crypto vibes.”
- Compute pricing/utilization: Availability stays scarce = tailwind; capacity glut = multiple risks.
- Risk appetite gauges: Software and small-caps stabilization tend to matter a lot for ARKK’s footing.
Base/bull /bear (clean finish)
- Base case: ARKK remains unstable while software and small caps act heavy.
- Bull case: Crypto rails and AI capacity regain their lead as risk-on returns and headlines about adoption improve.
- Bear case: The market demands cash flows in the near term, which puts pressure on long-term innovation beyond what ARK’s buyers can handle.