Cathie Wood buys $31.8 million of surging AI stock

Here are Cathie Wood’s latest moves.

Jun 23, 2025 - 14:44

Cathie Wood buys $31.8 million of surging AI stock

Cathie Wood, chief of Ark Investment Management, often aggressively invests in high-flying tech stocks she sees as future game-changers.

She buys even as stock prices surge, betting that long-term disruption will overcome short-term volatility. This is just what she did recently, adding shares of a popular AI stock that has surged more than 8% in the past five days.

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 — especially Tesla, her biggest position — slid amid growing concerns over the macroeconomy and trade policies.

Now, the fund is regaining momentum. As of June 20, the flagship Ark Innovation ETF (ARKK) is up 17.6% year-to-date, far outpacing the S&P 500’s 1.5% gain.

Wood's remarkable return of 153% in 2020 helped build her reputation and attract loyal investors. Her strategy can lead to sharp gains during bull markets but also painful losses, like in 2022, when ARKK dropped more than 60%.

As of June 20, Ark Innovation ETF, with $5.5 billion under management, has delivered a five-year annualized return of 0.4%. The S&P 500 had an annualized return of 15.8% over the same period.

*Over the past 12 months through June 18, the Ark Innovation ETF saw $2.4 billion in net outflows, with $256 million exiting the fund in just the past five days, according to ETF research firm VettaFi.*
Image source: Fallon/AFP via Getty Images

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.

Wood says these companies have the potential to reshape industries, but their volatility leads to major fluctuations in Ark funds' values.

The Ark Innovation ETF wiped out $7 billion in investor wealth over the 10 years ending in 2024, 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.

Wood recently said the U.S. is coming out of a three-year “rolling recession” and heading into a productivity-led recovery that could trigger a broader bull market.

In a letter to investors published in late April, she dismissed predictions of a recession dragging into 2026, as she expects "more clarity on tariffs, taxes, regulations, and interest rates over the next three to six months."

"If the current tariff turmoil results in freer trade, as tariffs and non-tariff barriers come down in tandem with declines in other taxes, regulations, and interest rates, then real GDP growth and productivity should surprise on the high side of expectations at some point during the second half of this year," she wrote.

She also 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. Over the past 12 months through June 18, the Ark Innovation ETF saw $2.4 billion in net outflows, with $256 million exiting the fund in just the past five days, according to ETF research firm VettaFi.

Cathie Wood buys $31.8 million of AMD stock

Wood just boosted her stake in Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) , with the Ark funds buying 247,753 shares worth about $31.8 million on June 20, just days after picking up 37,377 shares valued at $4.8 million on June 17.

Wood had sold about 121,000 AMD shares in the first quarter of 2024 (then 38.9% of her total AMD stake) when the stock was near its peak. Since then, as the stock has dropped, she’s been rebuilding her position, according to data from Stockcircle.

On June 16, AMD stock rallied 8.8% after Piper Sandler raised the price target for AMD to $140 from $125 and reiterated an overweight rating.

The analyst wrote that AMD could see increased demand for the company’s graphics processing units, or GPUs. AMD also recently unveiled its next-generation AI chips that come out next year, called the Instinct MI400 series.

AMD's biggest challenge, yet also the biggest opportunity, could likely be competing with Nvidia (NVDA) in AI semiconductors. At a recent company event, AMD's CEO Lisa Su said the latest chips in the MI350 series are faster than Nvidia’s, Bloomberg reported.

Su previously predicted $500 billion in AI accelerators market revenue by 2028, but she now sees it topping that number.

“People used to think that $500 billion was very large number,” she said. “Now it seems well within grasp.”

In May, the chipmaker announced a partnership with Saudi Arabian AI startup Humain to help build a $10 billion AI-computing infrastructure over five years, a project that could also boost AMD’s role in the AI-chip market.

The news came as a much-needed boost for AMD. In the first four months of 2025, AMD stock lost nearly 20%, dragged by a broader tariff-related pullback, a curb on chip sales overseas, and concerns about whether demand for high-priced AI GPUs was sustainable.

In 2024, the shares lost about 18% as investors questioned whether AMD could catch up to Nvidia, the leader in the AI-GPU race.

AMD makes up about 1.95% of the ARK Innovation ETF, according to stockanalysis.com. The stock closed at $128.24 on June 20, up 6.17% year-to-date.

According to TipRanks, Wall Street's average price target on AMD stock is $129.93, which implies an upside of 1.32%.