Cathie Wood

Cathie Wood is an American investor and fund manager who founded ARK Investment Management, commonly known as ARK Invest, in 2014. She serves as its chief executive and chief investment officer. ARK specialises in actively managed exchange-traded funds (ETFs) that invest in what the firm calls disruptive innovation, including artificial intelligence, robotics, genomics, energy storage and blockchain technology. Wood became one of the best-known public advocates of Bitcoin among mainstream fund managers.

Wood's style sits at the far end of active management: concentrated portfolios of fast-growing, often unprofitable companies held for a five-year view, with research published openly. Her funds' very strong returns in 2020 and steep losses in 2021 and 2022 made her one of the most closely followed, and most debated, figures in investing.

Most large funds spread their money across hundreds of companies so that no single bet can sink them. Cathie Wood does the opposite. She picks a few dozen companies she believes will change how the world works, such as electric carmakers, gene-editing firms and crypto businesses, and puts large amounts into each.

When those bets pay off, her funds can rise much faster than the overall market; when they fall out of favour, the funds can drop just as sharply. She is also unusually open, publishing her firm's research and daily trades, so followers can see what she owns and why. That openness, and her bold long-range forecasts, have made her a household name among retail investors.

Wood was born in Los Angeles in 1955 and studied finance and economics at the University of Southern California, graduating in 1981. She began her career as an economist at Capital Group and spent about 18 years at Jennison Associates, where she became chief economist and a portfolio manager. In 1998 she co-founded the hedge fund Tupelo Capital Management, and in 2001 she joined AllianceBernstein, where she ran global thematic strategies. After AllianceBernstein declined to back her plan for transparent thematic ETFs, she left and founded ARK in 2014.

ARK's best-known fund is the ARK Innovation ETF (ticker ARKK), alongside others focused on themes such as genomics, fintech, autonomous technology and space. The firm practises thematic investing, choosing companies by the trends they ride rather than by industry or country. Key features of its approach include:

• Concentrated holdings. Funds typically hold a few dozen growth stocks, with large weights in top positions such as Tesla.
• Long horizon. ARK models companies on a five-year view and often buys more when prices fall.
• Transparency. The firm publishes its trades daily and releases research and financial models publicly.
• Crossover investing. ARK has also invested in private companies through venture capital-style funds.

ARKK rose by roughly 150% in 2020, attracting large inflows, then lost about three-quarters of its value from its February 2021 peak to its late-2022 low as interest rates rose and growth stocks fell. Its long-term returns have since been compared unfavourably with broad market indexes, while supporters point to periods of strong recovery.

ARK was among the first public fund managers to gain exposure to bitcoin, buying shares of the Grayscale Bitcoin Trust for its funds in 2015. Wood has repeatedly described bitcoin as a new asset class and a hedge against monetary debasement, and ARK has published long-term scenarios for its price, which critics treat as speculative. In partnership with 21Shares, ARK launched the ARK 21Shares Bitcoin ETF (ARKB), one of the spot bitcoin ETFs approved by the Securities and Exchange Commission in January 2024. ARK funds have also held shares of Coinbase and other crypto-related companies, and of Circle after its 2025 listing.

Supporters credit Wood with spotting major technology trends early and with making professional research widely available. Critics argue that her concentrated, high-risk approach led many retail investors to buy near the 2021 peak and suffer large losses, and that her price forecasts are overly optimistic. Analysts have also noted that heavy outflows during the downturn meant the average investor in ARKK earned far less than the fund's headline returns. The debate is often cited in discussions of active versus passive management and of investment management by star managers.

• ARK Invest