Cathie Wood is doubling down on her buy-the-dip strategy.
The Ark Invest chief just picked up shares of a megacap tech name that fell 9% after reporting results.
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. But so far this year, Wood’s flagship Ark Innovation ETF (ARKK) is down 1.22%, while the S&P 500 surged 5.62%, Yahoo Finance data shows.
Wood gained a reputation after the Ark Innovation ETF delivered a 153% return in 2020. However, 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 April 29, the Ark Innovation ETF has delivered a five-year annualized return of -8.48%, while the S&P 500 has an annualized return of 13.21% over the same period, according to data from Morningstar.
Cathie Wood expects “the most powerful capital spending cycle in history”
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.
According to Morningstar analyst Bella Albrecht, two of Wood’s Ark funds were among the worst-performing ETFs in the first quarter of 2026. The Ark Next Generation Internet ETF (ARKW) ranked second on the list, while the ARK Innovation ETF placed fifth.
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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 the 2025 ranking.
In a March 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.
Related: Cathie Wood buys $14.1 million of megacap tech stock
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 noted that AI is driving down costs across industries.
“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.
But not all investors agree with Wood’s optimism. In the 12 months through April 30, the Ark Innovation ETF saw roughly $1.23 billion in net outflows, according to data from ETF research firm VettaFi.
Cathie Wood buys $28.7 million of Meta stock
On April 30, Wood’s Ark funds bought 47,201 shares of Meta Platforms Inc (META), according to Ark’s daily trade information. These shares are valued at approximately $28.7 million based on the latest closing price of $608.75.
Shares of Meta have tumbled nearly 10% over the past five trading days, including an 8.6% drop on April 30, the day after its earnings report, Yahoo Finance data shows.
Related: Bank of America revamps Amazon stock target after earnings
The company reported first-quarter results on April 29. Adjusted earnings per share came at $7.31, above the $6.79 expected, while revenue rose 33% from a year earlier to $56.31 billion, topping estimates of $55.45 billion and marking its fastest growth since 2021.
However, Meta’s capital expenditures came in below forecasts, and user growth missed estimates.
Daily active people (DAP) for the quarter reached 3.56 billion, up 4% from a year earlier but down more than 5% from the previous quarter and below Wall Street expectations of 3.62 billion. Meta attributed the decline to “internet disruptions in Iran” and “a restriction on access to WhatsApp in Russia.”
Meta’s capital expenditures for Q1 were $19.84 billion, below estimates of $27.57 billion, according to data pulled by CNBC from StreetAccount. But the company raised its full-year capex outlook to the range of $125 billion to $145 billion, up from a prior range of $115 billion to $135 billion.
“This reflects our expectations for higher component pricing this year and, to a lesser extent, additional data center costs to support future year capacity,” Meta said in an announcement.
Meanwhile, Meta is cutting labor costs. The company said last week that it will lay off about 10% of its workforce, or roughly 8,000 employees, and halt hiring for 6,000 open roles, following earlier cuts in January and March.
Bank of America analysts led by Justin Post raised the firm’s price target on Meta to $835 from $820 and reiterated a buy rating following the results.
“With stock still a ‘show-me’ story on AI returns, increasing 3P capacity commitments and a $10bn higher capex outlook for 2026 likely weighed on sentiment,” the analysts explained the stock’s recent decline.
The analysts said Meta is increasing AI spending while cutting jobs to offset costs, a mix that may not be sustainable for the longer term. They added that returns from AI are still less clear than for cloud providers
However, Meta’s core AI-driven ad business “continues to put up impressive results,” the analysts added.
Meta is not a top 10 holding in the Ark Innovation ETF.
Top 10 holdings of the Ark Innovation ETF as of May 1, 2026:
- Tesla (TSLA) 9.73%
- Tempus AI (TEM) 5.35%
- Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) 5.18%
- CRISPR Therapeutics (CRSP) 4.98%
- Shopify (SHOP) 4.37%
- Roku (ROKU) 4.33%
- Robinhood Markets (HOOD) 4.30%
- Coinbase (COIN) 4.23%
- Circle Internet Group (CRCL) 3.84%
- Palantir Technologies (PLTR) 3.13%
Other than buying Meta shares, Cathie Wood’s recent moves include adding to Alphabet (GOOG), Roblox (RBLX), Robinhood Markets (HOOD) and Intellia Therapeutics (NTLA), while trimming positions in Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) and Twist Bioscience (TWST).
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