Cathie Wood, CEO and CEO of ARK Investment Management LLC, speaks at the Sooner Than You Think conference in the New York City district of Brooklyn on Tuesday, October 16, 2018.
Alex Flynn | Bloomberg | Getty Images
Cathie Wood said Ark Invest remains bullish on Tesla and continues to buy shares of the electric vehicle maker.
“Our confidence in Tesla has grown as we’ve done research on what can add the ability to share travel. It could limit risks significantly, it’s a much more profitable business than electric vehicles,” Wood told Bob Pisani from CNBC on ETF Edge on Wednesday. “While there is some debate at Tesla over whether or not they should launch a human-driven drive network, it would be a very good bridge that we think about their standalone strategy and believe they will decide to do so.”
Ark Invest’s flagship fund, Ark Innovation, has amassed $ 5.3 billion in revenue this year alone, according to FactSet. The ETF, which is listed under the ARKK marker, has risen nearly 20% this year after an impressive gain of almost 150% in 2020. Tesla is Ark Innovation’s largest stake, accounting for more than 8, 5% of the total weight of the ETF.
Ark reports on its business every day and these updates reflect the purchase at Tesla, Wood says. Shares of Tesla fell more than 2% on Wednesday, though they scored slightly higher on Wood’s comments. Tesla shares have fallen 5% in the last month, but have still risen 386% in the last 12 months.
“As time goes on and we know their experience in artificial intelligence, the 30 billion miles they’ve collected from real-world driving data, no one even comes close, I think Google could get to the 30 million, compared to 30 billion and we know that in AI [artificial intelligence] global and autonomous is the AI that will win the company with the most data and the best quality, ”Wood added.
Wood said the likelihood of having autonomous vehicles successfully increases and therefore Ark’s price target will follow at some point.
Wood is a longtime bitcoin bull, with big bets on the Grauscale Bitcoin Trust. Wood told CNBC he expected institutional interest in Bitcoin this year, but buying Tesla’s digital currency came as a surprise.
Ark Invest has more than $ 58 billion in assets under management.