Cathie Wood, chief of Ark Investment Management, likes to trade around earnings season.
Sometimes, Wood adds or sells stocks right after their earnings. Sometimes, she makes moves days ahead of results, betting on potential gains. That’s what she just did, buying shares of a megacap tech firm ahead of its earnings next week.
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. So far this year, Wood’s flagship Ark Innovation ETF (ARKK) is up 1.84% year to date, while the S&P 500 surged 4.27%, Yahoo Finance data shows.
Wood gained a reputation after the Ark Innovation ETF delivered a 153% return in 2020. But 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 21, the Ark Innovation ETF has delivered a five-year annualized return of -8.52%, while the S&P 500 has an annualized return of 12.73% over the same period, according to data from Morningstar.
In the 12 months through April 21, the Ark Innovation ETF saw roughly $1.12 billion in net Getty Images
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.
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 outflows.
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 $2.5 million of tumbling megacap 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 21, the Ark Innovation ETF saw roughly $1.12 billion in net outflows, according to data from ETF research firm VettaFi.
On April 21, Wood’s Ark Space & Defense Innovation ETF bought 3,492 shares of Amazon.com, Inc. (AMZN), according to Ark’s daily trade information. These shares are valued at approximately $891,717 based on the latest closing price of $255.36.
Shares of Amazon have surged more than 24% over the past month, driven by optimism around Amazon Web Services (AWS), now the company’s AI hub, and a broader market rebound following the ceasefire between the U.S. and Iran.
The e-commerce giant is set to report its first quarter 2026 earnings next Wednesday (April 29).
Related: Morgan Stanley resets Intel stock price target ahead of earnings
In the fourth quarter of 2025, AWS sales jumped 24% year over year to $35.6 billion, the fastest growth in 13 quarters. The segment brought in $12.5 billion in operating income, making up about half of the company’s total.
Bank of America raised its price target for Amazon stock to $298 from $275 ahead of earnings, according to an April 20 research note sent to TheStreet. The bank has a buy rating on Amazon shares.
“We continue to see Amazon as very well positioned to benefit from growing corporate demand for AI capacity,” Bank of America analysts led by Justin Post wrote.
The analysts expect a wave of positive AWS data points pointing to improving capacity and a stronger industry position compared with 2025.
This week, Amazon announced plans to invest up to $25 billion in Anthropic as part of an expanded agreement to build out AI infrastructure.
In February, Amazon revealed a $50 billion investment in OpenAI, Anthropic’s biggest rival. The same month, Amazon said it expects $200 billion in capital expenditures this year, most of which will be for AI infrastructure.
“With such strong demand for our existing offerings and seminal opportunities like AI, chips, robotics, low earth orbit satellites, we expect to invest about $200 billion in capital expenditures across Amazon in 2026, and anticipate strong long-term return on invested capital,” Amazon CEO Andy Jassysaid in a statement.
Amazon is not a top 10 holding in either the Ark Space & Defense Innovation ETF or the Ark Innovation ETF.
Other than buying Amazon shares, Wood’s recent moves include buying 24,614 shares of Kratos Defense & Security Solutions (KTOS), 4,625 shares of DoorDash (DASH), while selling 81,422 shares of Iridium Communications (IRDM).
Related: Warren Buffett dumped 77% of Amazon to buy surging media stock
