Cathie Wood, head of Ark Investment Management, is known for betting on tech companies she believes can “disrupt” the future. But she doesn’t hesitate to shuffle her portfolio, sometimes trimming or adding to positions within days of making a move.
That’s what she just did, selling shares of a hot tech name only a week after buying them.
Wood’s funds have experienced a volatile ride this year, swinging from sharp losses to strong gains.
In January and February, the Ark funds rallied as investors bet on the Trump administration’s potential deregulation that could benefit Wood’s tech bets. But the momentum faded in March and April, with the funds trailing the market as top holdings slid amid growing concerns over the macroeconomy and trade policies.
Now, the Ark’s funds are showing solid performance again. As of Sept. 26, the flagship Ark Innovation ETF (ARKK) is up 44% year-to-date, far outpacing the S&P 500’s 13% gain.
Wood’s remarkable return of 153% in 2020 helped build her reputation and attract loyal followers. Her strategy can lead to sharp gains during bull markets but also painful losses in downturns, like in 2022, when ARKK dropped more than 60%.
Those swings have weighed on her long-term results. As of Sept. 26, the Ark Innovation ETF has delivered a five-year annualized return of negative 1.3%, while the S&P 500 has an annualized return of 16.8% over the same period.
Cathie Wood’s investment strategy explained
Wood’s investment strategy is straightforward: Her Ark ETFs typically buy shares in emerging high-tech companies in fields such as artificial intelligence, blockchain, biomedical technology, and robotics.
She thinks these companies have the potential to reshape industries and bring outsized long-term returns, but their volatility leads to major fluctuations in Ark funds’ values.
Over the 10 years ending in 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.
Still, Wood has been bullish on the market. In a letter to investors published in late April, she dismissed predictions of a recession dragging into 2026 and struck an optimistic tone for tech stocks.
“During the current turbulent transition in the U.S., we think consumers and businesses are likely to accelerate the shift to technologically enabled innovation platforms, including artificial intelligence, robotics, energy storage, blockchain technology, and multiomics sequencing,” she said.
Not all investors share this optimism. In the five days through Sept. 25, the Ark Innovation ETF saw about $1.5 billion in net outflows, according to ETF research firm VettaFi. That equals roughly 21% of the fund’s $7.17 billion in assets as of the end of August.
Cathie Wood sells $22.3 million of AMD stock
On Sept. 24, Wood trimmed her stake in Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) , with the Ark Innovation ETF selling 138,432 shares of the AI chipmaker valued at roughly $22.3 million.
Just a week earlier, Wood bought 25,899 AMD shares worth $4.2 million through one of her other ETFs, the ARK Fintech innovation ETF (ARKF) . This sale came as AMD’s challenges against bigger competitors Nvidia (NVDA) and Intel (INTC) mounted.
AMD shares peaked in Q1 2024 as strong demand for its CPUs and GPUs drove up investors’ enthusiasm. From then to April 2025, the rally faded amid margin pressure, tougher competition from Nvidia, and concerns over tariffs and China chip sales ban.
From May to early August, AMD stock regained momentum amid a rebound in the artificial intelligence boom and the lifting of the chip sales ban to China, which boosted investor confidence.
AMD’s largest CPU rival, Intel, has recently received considerable support, with $8.9 billion from the U.S. government and $5 billion from Nvidia, AMD’s biggest rival in GPUs.
“This historic collaboration tightly couples NVIDIA’s AI and accelerated computing stack with Intel’s CPUs and the vast x86 ecosystem — a fusion of two world-class platforms,” said Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang.
It was also reported that Apple (AAPL) may invest in Intel as well, adding to AMD’s competitive headwinds. The wave of backing for Intel raises concerns for AMD as it seeks to gain ground in both CPU and GPU markets.
AMD stock closed at $159.46 on Sept. 25 and is up 32% year-to-date. Wall Street analysts have an average stock price target of $187.73, according to TipRanks.
The September sale marked Wood’s largest AMD disposal in about 17 months. She had sold about 121,000 AMD shares in the first quarter of 2024 (then 38.9% of her total stake) when the stock was riding high. Since then, as the stock has dropped, she has been rebuilding her position, according to data from Stockcircle.
Despite the trim, AMD remains a significant position for the Ark Innovation ETF, ranking as the 10th largest holding. The stake is valued at about $216.9 million and accounts for 2.95% of the portfolio, according to Ark’s latest disclosure.
