Cathie Wood, head of Ark Investment Management, has a history of buying stocks shortly after their IPOs.
In recent years, Wood’s Ark funds have invested in newly public companies such as Tempus AI (TEM), Coinbase (COIN), and CoreWeave (CRWV), reflecting her strategy of gaining early exposure to high-growth businesses in artificial intelligence, cryptocurrency, and cloud computing.
Now, Wood is making another IPO bet, buying more than $529 million worth of SpaceX stock.
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 2.85%, while the S&P 500 surged 8.56%, 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 June 12, the Ark Innovation ETF has delivered a five-year annualized return of -8.06%, while the S&P 500 has an annualized return of 11.84% over the same period, according to data from Morningstar.
Cathie Wood expects a “great acceleration” brought by technology developments
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.
Over the past 12 months through June 11, the ARK Innovation ETF saw roughly $294.27 million in net outflows.Getty Images
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.
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Wood said on the June 5 episode of “In the Know” that she is closely watching June 17, when Kevin Warsh, the new Federal Reserve chair, announces the next interest rate decision.
“I do believe Kevin Warsh knows that interest rates have to come down, mortgage rates at least. And if inflation comes down as productivity is increasing, no matter how strong the economy is, I think he will cut rates,” Wood said.
Related: Cathie Wood sells $16.2 million of tumbling megacap stock
Wood argued that productivity improvements brought by technology are helping drive the economy while reducing inflation. She added that oil prices already appear to be peaking and could fall further if the Iran war is resolved.
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. “These technologies are deflationary… AI training costs are dropping 75% per year, and inference costs are falling as much as 85% to even 98% annually.”
But not all investors agree with Wood’s optimism. Over the past 12 months through June 11, the ARK Innovation ETF saw roughly $294.27 million in net outflows, according to data from ETF research firm VettaFi.
Cathie Wood buys $529.7million of SpaceX stock
On June 12, Wood’s Ark funds bought a total of 3,291,184 shares of Space Exploration Technologies Corp (SPCX), more commonly known as SpaceX. Based on the latest closing price of $160.95, these stocks were worth about $529.7 million.
June 12 was SpaceX’s first day of trading, and its shares surged 19%. The rally pushed Elon Musk‘s net worth above $1 trillion, making him the world’s first trillionaire. Musk also serves as CEO of EV maker Tesla (TSLA).
Musk founded SpaceX in 2002 as a reusable rocket company, but today its only profitable business is the Starlink satellite internet division. According to the company’s prospectus, SpaceX has an accumulated deficit of $41.3 billion as of March 31.
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Wood was already a SpaceX investor before the company’s IPO. Ark Invest first bought SpaceX shares in late 2023, and it later became the largest holding in the firm’s roughly $1 billion internal venture fund, according to Business Insider.
Wood has long been one of Musk’s biggest supporters. During a 2023 CNBC show covered by TheStreet’s Moz Farooque, she said periods of turmoil often bring out Musk’s best work.
“These difficult times, though, spur Elon’s creativity. He is a troubleshooter and a brilliant technologist,” Wood said.
Still, many other investors and analysts are skeptical about SpaceX’s momentum, citing valuation concerns and a high retail investor allocation in the IPO.
“The more immediate concern is the heavy retail allocation,” veteran technical trader James DePorre wrote in a recent post on TheStreet Pro. “The retail allocation is 30% of the offering, which is much higher than the typical 5 to 10%.”
DePorre noted that retail investors who received an allocation at $135 have an incentive to sell their shares if the price moves meaningfully higher. “That will create some supply pressure,” he wrote.
Other than buying SpaceX stock, Wood’s recent trades also included selling shares of Tesla (TSLA), Advanced Micro Devices (AMD), Rocket Lab (RKLB), Roku (ROKU), and Chinese tech firm Baidu (BIDU).
Related: Goldman Sachs doubles down on stock market outlook for 2026
