Cathie Wood built much of ARK’s 2026 comeback on semiconductors. Now she keeps selling them.
On Monday, May 18, her ARK Invest funds sold more than $28 million of Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) and Taiwan Semiconductor stock (TSM), two names that still rank among the top holdings in her flagship fund, as reported by Benzinga.
The timing makes traders look twice. Both stocks sit near record territory, AMD has nearly doubled this year, and Wall Street keeps raising targets on the very shares Wood is unloading.
This is not a bet that the AI chip boom is over. It looks more like a manager banking profits on her biggest winners before the next leg of the story plays out.
Here is what she sold, where the money went, and what it means for you.
Photo by SOPA Images on Getty Images
What Cathie Wood actually sold in the AMD and TSM trade
ARK offloaded 38,529 shares of AMD across its ARKK, ARKW, and ARKF funds on Monday, a sale worth roughly $16.3 million, according to Investing.com.
It also sold Taiwan Semiconductor stock across funds, a trade valued at about $11.8 million as TSM closed at $395.95.
This was not a one-off. Wood has been steadily cutting AMD all month.
ARK’s recent semiconductor sales:
- May 5: ARK sold about 45,917 AMD shares worth roughly $15.6 million.
- May 14 to 15: ARK liquidated roughly 100,549 TSM shares worth about $40.6 million, per MoneyCheck.
- May 18: The latest $28 million combined AMD and TSM sale.
Add it up, and the AMD selling alone has run well past $100 million since early May.
AMD still closed Monday around $422, and the stock is up roughly 98% year-to-date. TSM has gained more than 33% this year.
Why selling near record highs is not the same as turning bearish
Wood trades actively and often sells strong stocks into strength to fund higher-conviction ideas.
A 13F is a portfolio snapshot filed with the SEC every quarter. ARK’s shows that AMD and TSM remain two of its largest positions, even after weeks of selling. You do not keep a name as a top-three holding if you think its story is broken.
Related: Cathie Wood buys 33M of Canadian tech stock
After a near-double in AMD, the position grew large, and trimming a winner to lock in gains is standard risk management. Wood has used the same playbook on other surging holdings this cycle.
The contrast with the Street is sharp. Citi analyst Atif Malik raised his AMD target to $460 from $358 on the same Monday ARK was selling, citing growing AI server CPU demand.
Both can be right, because they answer different questions: one about the company, the other about position size.
AMD catalyst Cathie Wood may be trading around
The big question for AMD bulls is its Helios rack-scale platform, which bundles MI450-series GPUs, EPYC “Venice” CPUs, and AMD’s own networking into a complete AI system that competes with Nvidia’s racks.
A rack-scale platform is a full server cabinet sold as one integrated unit, instead of individual chips that customers assemble themselves. It is where the biggest AI dollars now flow.
More semiconductor stocks:
- Bank of America resets Nvidia stock price target for 2026
- AMD and Intel lead 2026 gains as AI guard changes
- KeyBanc sets jaw-dropping Nvidia stock price target before earnings
The catch is timing. According to The Next Platform, AMD says Helios systems with the MI455X are on target for the second half of 2026, but research firm SemiAnalysis has flagged that mass production may not ramp until 2027.
That gap helps explain the trades, since the hardest stretch for a stock often comes between a product reveal and real revenue, when expectations run high, but shipments stay small.
What still has to go right for the AMD bull case
Three things the thesis needs:
- Helios MI450 systems ship on schedule in the second half of 2026.
- Big customers like Meta and OpenAI move from commitments to deployed gigawatts.
- AMD holds margins against Nvidia’s rack-scale systems already in service, per TechRadar report.
Selling now does not mean Wood doubts those steps. It may simply mean she would rather own less of the stock while the market waits for proof.
Where the money went
The buy side of Monday’s ledger is broader than the headline suggests.
ARK’s largest purchase of the day was L3Harris Technologies (LHX), a defense contractor, at about $3.18 million, Investing.com reported. It also added Amazon, Nvidia, and Tesla.
Then come the speculative names that grabbed attention:
- Archer Aviation (ACHR): 281,199 shares, about $1.7 million, at $5.92.
- Joby Aviation (JOBY): 118,699 shares, about $1.2 million, at $10.35.
Both are electric air taxi companies that fell recently on heavy cash burn, even after first-quarter results beat expectations.
Earlier in the week, ARK poured roughly $46 million into Cerebras Systems (CBRS), an AI chip startup, per Investing.com, and recently scooped up an e-commerce winner after earnings.
The pattern is a manager moving cash from large, crowded chip winners into smaller, earlier-stage bets across AI, defense, and aviation. She is staying in disruption, just lower down the maturity curve.
How AMD has stacked up against the S&P 500 in 2026
Here is how AMD’s run compares to the broad market.
AMD vs. the S&P 500, 2026 year-to-date:
- AMD: up roughly 98%.
- S&P 500: up about 8%.
- ARK Innovation ETF (ARKK): down about 3.8% year-to-date.
Source: Yahoo Finance
The gap explains a lot. When one holding outruns the index more than tenfold, it swells to an outsized share of the fund, and trimming brings the weighting back to a comfortable level. As seen on sec.gov, ARK’s latest shareholder report listed AMD among its biggest semiconductor positions.
Her flagship fund also trails the market this year, so banking gains on her best performers gives Wood capital to chase a turnaround.
What this means if you own AMD or TSM
A single fund’s trades should not drive your decision, but they are a useful prompt to check your own thinking.
If you hold AMD after its run, ask whether the position has grown too large for your comfort, the same question Wood appears to be answering for ARK.
For longer-term investors, the Helios timeline is the thing to watch. Look for shipping confirmation in late 2026 and signs that big deployments are turning into revenue.
If you are tempted to follow ARK into Archer or Joby, treat them as high-risk. Both are pre-profit, burning cash, per Benzinga report, and far more speculative than the chipmakers Wood is selling.
The bottom line on Cathie Wood’s chip selling
Wood is not abandoning AI. She is rebalancing within it, banking gains on mature winners and spreading bets across newer ideas.
How that pays off depends on AMD’s execution into 2027 and on air taxi startups proving they can fund themselves to launch.
For now, AMD and TSM remain core ARK holdings, which tells you the selling reflects portfolio discipline rather than a verdict on the chips.
Related: Cathie Wood trims $3.17M of surging bioscience stock
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