Cathie Wood sells $75M of surging semiconductor stock

Cathie Wood, caput of Ark Investment Management, often takes vantage of marketplace swings.

That’s what she conscionable did, selling shares of a semiconductor banal aft it jumped 25% successful a week.

Last year, Wood’s flagship Ark Innovation ETF (ARKK) gained 35.49%, acold outpacing the S&P 500’s instrumentality of 17.88% successful the aforesaid period. But the show has shifted this year.

So acold successful 2026, the Ark Innovation ETF is down 1.76%, portion the S&P 500 surged 4.67% implicit the aforesaid period, according to Yahoo Finance data.

Wood gained a estimation aft the Ark Innovation ETF delivered a 153% instrumentality successful 2020. But her benignant besides brings achy losses successful bearish markets, arsenic seen successful 2022, erstwhile the Ark Innovation ETF tumbled much than 60%.

Those swings person weighed connected Wood’s semipermanent gains. As of April 24, the Ark Innovation ETF has delivered a five-year annualized instrumentality of -9.01%, portion the S&P 500 has an annualized instrumentality of 13.01% implicit the aforesaid period, according to information from Morningstar.

Wood focuses connected high-tech companies crossed artificial intelligence, blockchain, biomedical technology, and robotics. She thinks these businesses person beardown maturation potential, though their volatility often causes fluctuations successful the Ark’s funds.

According to Morningstar expert Bella Albrecht, 2 of Wood’s Ark funds were among the worst-performing ETFs successful the archetypal 4th of 2026. The Ark Next Generation Internet ETF (ARKW) ranked 2nd connected the list, portion the ARK Innovation ETF placed fifth.

“We’re not going into the Great Depression, we’re going into the large acceleration,” Wood said, pointing to however past technological revolutions reshaped economical growth.

She noted that planetary existent GDP maturation averaged conscionable 0.6% betwixt 1500 and 1900, earlier the Industrial Revolution lifted it to astir 3% for much than a century. Now, she argues, a caller question of innovation could propulsion maturation overmuch higher.

“We deliberation [technologies] are going to instrumentality maturation into the 7 to 8% range,” Wood said, adding that the fig whitethorn really beryllium conservative.

Wood besides noted that AI is driving down costs crossed industries.

“These technologies are deflationary,” she said. “AI grooming costs are dropping 75% per year, and inference costs are falling arsenic overmuch arsenic 85% to adjacent 98% annually.”

In a missive published successful January, Wood rejects the “AI bubble” talk, saying it "is years away" and "the astir almighty superior spending rhythm successful history" is coming.

From 2014 to 2024, the Ark Innovation ETF wiped retired $7 cardinal successful capitalist wealth, according to a March 2025 investigation by Morningstar’s expert Amy Arnott. That made it the third-biggest wealthiness destroyer among communal funds and ETFs successful Arnott’s ranking. The expert hasn’t updated the 2025 ranking.