Cathie Wood, head of Ark Investment Management, is best known for betting on early-stage tech names and high-growth innovators. But occasionally she makes a move into the megacap space when she sees value.
That’s what Wood did in the past week (Thanksgiving Week), adding about $56 million worth of a megacap tech name, one of her largest recent purchases.
Wood gained a reputation after the Ark Innovation ETF delivered a 153% return in 2020. Year-to-date, Wood’s flagship Ark Innovation ETF (ARKK) is up about 38% as of Nov. 28, outpacing the S&P 500’s gain of 16.45% in the same period.
Wood’s style brings sweet wins in rising markets but also painful losses in bearish ones, as seen in 2022, when the fund lost more than 60%.
Those swings have weighed on her long-term results. As of Nov. 26, the Ark Innovation ETF has delivered a five-year annualized return of -6.18%, while the S&P 500 has an annualized return of 15.28% over the same period, according to data from Morningstar.
G
Cathie Wood’s investment strategy explained
Wood’s investment strategy is straightforward: Her Ark ETFs typically target emerging high-tech companies in fields such as artificial intelligence, blockchain, biomedical technology, and robotics.
In Wood’s view, these companies could reshape the world and drive strong long-term growth, yet their volatility leads to big fluctuations in the values of Ark funds.
Related: Cathie Wood’s net worth: The Ark Invest CEO’s wealth & income
From 2014 to 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.
In October, Wood said in a CNBC interview that she expects to see a market “shudder” as interest rates begin to rise.
Still, Wood believes in the potential of AI, denying the “AI bubbles” talk amid concerns about the high valuations of tech stocks.
“I do not believe AI is in a bubble,” Wood said. “ What I do think is, on the enterprise side, it is going to take a while for large corporations to prepare themselves to transform…in order to really capitalize on the productivity gains that we think are going to be unleashed by AI.”
Not all investors agree with Wood. In the 12 months through Nov. 27, the Ark Innovation ETF saw roughly $1.3 billion in net outflows, according to ETF research firm VettaFi.
Cathie Wood buys $56 million of Alphabet stock
On Nov. 25, Wood’s Ark funds bought 174,293 Alphabet (GOOG) Class C stock, valued at approximately $55.77 million. On the day of purchase, Alphabet stock rose to a record high of $328.67 in intraday trading amid reports saying it could sell AI chips to Meta Platforms (META).
Wood has been gradually adding to her Google stake this year, purchasing 210,430 shares so far. Most of that buying came in the third quarter, when she bought roughly 205,000 shares, according to Stockcircle’s data.
Alphabet is not in the top ten holdings of the Ark Innovation ETF.
Top 10 holdings of the Ark Innovation ETF as of November 28, 2025:
- Tesla (TSLA) – 12.12%
- Tempus AI (TEM) – 5.51%
- Coinbase (COIN) – 5.48%
- Roku (ROKU) – 5.43%
- Crispr Therapeutics (CRSP) – 5.31%
- Shopify (SHOP) – 5.02%
- Robinhood (HOOD) – 4.60%
- Roblox (RBLX) – 3.80%
- Palantir (PLTR) – 3.48%
- AMD (AMD) – 3.43%
Meta is in talks to buy billions of dollars of Google (GOOG) chips starting in 2027, according to Reuters. The move would position Alphabet, Google’s parent company, as a direct challenger in the data center processor market, which Nvidia currently leads.
Meta is considering using Google’s tensor processing units (TPUs) in its own data centers and may also rent Google Cloud chips as early as next year.
The chip deal would end Google’s long practice of keeping TPUs inside its own data centers and open the door to a broader commercial market. It could also reduce Google’s dependence on Nvidia’s pricy chips.
Related: Analyst revisits Nvidia stock after Google-Meta news
“Custom XPU expanding footprint provides Google and Amazon with cost advantages in AI infrastructure,” said Citi analyst Atif Malik in a note emailed to TheStreet.
“Hyperscalers Microsoft and Meta remain reliant on Nvidia platforms (and, selectively, AMD), as their own custom programs like MTIA and Maia appear to be encountering delays,” Malik added.
Alphabet shares rose 1.53% on Nov. 25, the day Wood made the $56 million purchase. But the stock lost 1% on Nov. 26 and fell 0.05% on Nov. 28.
Alphabet stock is up roughly 69% year-to-date.
Related: Cathie Wood buys $16.7 million of megacap AI stock
#Cathie #Wood #buys #million #megacap #tech #stock