Cathie Wood, head of Ark Investment Management, usually buys the dip during market selloffs. But last week, she shifted course, selling large chunks of major tech names amid the market downturn caused by the U.S.-Iran war.
Last year, the flagship Ark Innovation ETF gained 35.49%, far outpacing the S&P 500’s return of 17.88% in the same period. But as of March 30, Wood’s flagship Ark Innovation ETF (ARKK) was down roughly 18.4% year to date, while the S&P 500 dropped 7.3%.
Wood gained a reputation after the Ark Innovation ETF delivered a 153% return in 2020. But her style also brings painful losses in bearish markets, as seen in 2022, when the Ark Innovation ETF tumbled more than 60%.
Those swings have weighed on Wood’s long-term gains. As of March 27, the Ark Innovation ETF has delivered a five-year annualized return of -10.6%, while the S&P 500 has an annualized return of 11.5% over the same period, according to data from Morningstar.
Cathie Wood expects a “great acceleration”
Wood focuses on high-tech companies across artificial intelligence, blockchain, biomedical technology, and robotics. She thinks these businesses have great growth potential, though their volatility often brings fluctuations to the Ark’s funds.
From 2014 to 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. The analyst hasn’t updated the 2025 ranking.
In the 12 months through March 27, the Ark Innovation ETF saw roughly $1.35 billion in net outflows.
In a recent Bloomberg podcast, Wood says the global economy is not heading into a downturn, but into what she calls a “great acceleration” driven by AI and other breakthrough technologies.
“We’re not going into the Great Depression, we’re going into the great acceleration,” Wood said, pointing to how past technological revolutions reshaped economic growth.
She noted that global real GDP growth averaged just 0.6% between 1500 and 1900, before the Industrial Revolution lifted it to around 3% for more than a century. Now, she argues, a new wave of innovation could push growth much higher.
“We think [technologies] are going to take growth into the 7 to 8% range,” Wood said, adding that the number may actually be conservative.
Wood also emphasized that AI is rapidly driving down costs across industries.
Related: Cathie Wood sells $2.1 million of megacap tech stock
“These technologies are deflationary,” she said. “AI training costs are dropping 75% per year, and inference costs are falling as much as 85% to even 98% annually.”
In a letter published in January, Wood rejects the “AI bubble” talk, saying it “is years away” and “the most powerful capital spending cycle in history” is coming.
“What once was the cap in spending seems to have become a floor now that the AI, robotics, energy storage, blockchain technology, and multiomics sequencing platforms are ready for prime time,” she said.
Not all investors agree with Wood’s optimism. In the 12 months through March 27, the Ark Innovation ETF saw roughly $1.35 billion in net outflows, according to ETF research firm VettaFi.
Cathie Wood sells $36 million of Nvidia stock
On March 26 and 27, Wood’s Ark funds sold a total of 213,560 shares of Nvidia (NVDA), valued at about $36 million, Ark’s daily trade information shows. This was among her largest recent sales.
Wood also sold 57,371 Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) shares worth about $12 million.
Semiconductor stocks have dropped about 7% over the past week and roughly 11% year to date, as tracked by the iShares Semiconductor ETF (SOXX).
The sector has struggled amid rising inflation concerns tied to higher energy prices, escalating geopolitical tensions in the Middle East, and a recent increase in U.S. Treasury yields, all of which have weighed on risk appetite and high-valuation tech names.
Related: Morgan Stanley sends clear message on semiconductor stocks after selloff
Over the past month, Nvidia stock has dropped by 6.8%, while AMD shares have fallen by 2%.
Still, Nvidia’s stock has held up better than most megacap tech peers this year, second only to Apple (AAPL).
Shares of Nvidia are down about 11.4% year to date, compared with steeper declines across the group, including Microsoft (MSFT) down 25.8%, Tesla (TSLA) down 21.0%, and Meta Platforms (META) down 18.7%. Apple is down 9.3% over the same period.
Nvidia remains the leader of the AI boom. In February, the company reported better-than-expected fiscal fourth-quarter results and issued upbeat forecasts on strong AI demand.
Adjusted earnings for the quarter came at $1.62 a share, beating estimates of $1.53. Revenue reached $68.13 billion, up 73% from a year ago and surpassing the $66.21 billion expected by analysts polled by LSEG.
“Enterprise adoption of agents is skyrocketing. Our customers are racing to invest in AI compute — the factories powering the AI industrial revolution and their future growth,” said Nvidia’s CEO Jensen Huang in a press release.
For several months, software stocks have fallen as investors worry AI could squeeze their profit margins. Similar concerns could also hit hardware companies like Nvidia, said Dennis Dick, a proprietary trader at Triple D Trading, Reuters reported.
“All technology, no matter what, including Nvidia, could potentially be disrupted, and that’s the risk factor right now,” said Dick. ”Everything’s running on Nvidia chips, but that doesn’t mean it’s going to be that way in two or three years.”
Nvidia is not in the top 10 holdings of Wood’s Ark Innovation ETF, while AMD currently accounts for 4.13% of the fund, ranking as the 9th holding.
Top 10 holdings of the Ark Innovation ETF as of March 30, 2026:
- Tesla (TSLA) 10.62%
- CRISPR Therapeutics (CRSP) 6.27%
- Tempus AI (TEM) 4.83%
- Shopify (SHOP) 4.75%
- Circle Internet Group (CRCL) 4.65%
- Coinbase Global (COIN) 4.27%
- Robinhood Markets (HOOD) 4.27%
- Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) 4.13%
- Roku (ROKU) 3.85%
- Palantir Technologies (PLTR) 3.67%
Besides Nvidia and AMD, Wood also trimmed stakes in Meta Platforms, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSM), Broadcom (AVGO), Alphabet (GOOGL), and Netflix (NFLX) last week.
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