Cathie Wood, CEO of Ark Investment Management, is known for investing in high-growth tech companies.
She’ll even add to positions amid strong gains, and that’s what she just did, adding shares of a megacap stock that has surged 14.8% over the past five days.
In 2025, the flagship Ark Innovation ETF gained 35.49%, far outpacing the S&P 500‘s return of 17.88% in the same period. So far this year, Wood’s flagship Ark Innovation ETF (ARKK) is up 3.05% year to date, while the S&P 500 surged 10.66% as of July 10, Yahoo Finance data shows.
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 July 10, her Ark Innovation ETF has delivered a five-year annualized return of -8.42%, while the S&P 500 has an annualized return of 11.63% over the same period, according to data from Morningstar.
Cathie Wood flags “the deflationary impact” of tech innovation
Wood focuses on high-tech companies across artificial intelligence, blockchain, biomedical technology, and robotics. She thinks these businesses have strong growth potential, though their volatility often causes fluctuations in the Ark’s funds.
From 2014 to 2024, the Ark Innovation ETF wiped out $7 billion in investor wealth, according to a March 2025 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 her ranking.
Wood believes investors have been focusing on the wrong signals as they assess the outlook for inflation, interest rates, and stocks.
In a June post on X, Wood said the bond market is increasingly reflecting the deflationary impact of technological innovation, particularly artificial intelligence, rather than the inflation risks many investors still fear.
Wood pointed to the continued flattening of the Treasury yield curve despite a sharp rise in oil prices over the past year. In previous cycles, she noted, an energy shock of that magnitude would have pushed long-term yields higher.
Related: Cathie Wood buys $2.1M of tumbling AI stock
Wood believes the bond market is “discounting something much more powerful: the deflationary impact of technological innovation, particularly artificial intelligence, which is beginning to increase productivity across broad swaths of the economy. ”
She also said easing tensions with Iran and a decline in oil prices could push inflation even lower.
