Copyright The Street
Cathie Wood’s trades often tell a story. Sometimes she switches positions quickly, moving in and out of names as market momentum shifts. That’s what the CEO of Ark Investment Management just did, picking up an AI stock that has dropped more than 20% over the past month, only three weeks after she sold the same shares. Wood’s investment strategy has worked well this year, with her funds outpacing the major market indexes. As of Nov. 10, the flagship Ark Innovation ETF (ARKK) is up about 44% year to date, far outpacing the S&P 500’s gain of 15%. Wood gained a reputation after the Ark Innovation ETF delivered a 153% return in 2020. Her style brings big wins in a rising market but also painful losses, as seen in 2022, when the fund lost more than 60%. Those swings have weighed on her long-term results. As of Nov. 7, the Ark Innovation ETF has delivered a five-year annualized return of -4.1%, while the S&P 500 has an annualized return of 15.6% over the same period, according to data from Morningstar. 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 whole sectors and drive strong long-term growth, yet their volatility leads to big fluctuations in the values of Ark funds. Over the 10 years ending in 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. Still, Wood has been bullish on the market. In a letter to investors published in late April, she dismissed predictions of a recession dragging into 2026 and struck an optimistic tone for tech stocks. “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. But not all investors share that optimism. In the 12 months through Nov. 6, the Ark Innovation ETF saw about $1.38 billion in net outflows, according to ETF research firm VettaFi. Cathie Wood buys $16.2 million of Tempus AI stock On Nov. 6 and 7, Wood’s Ark funds purchased 222,614 shares of Tempus AI (TEM), valued at approximately $16.2 million. The purchase came just three weeks after she sold 91,539 shares in October. Tempus AI is a health technology company founded in 2015. It uses AI for diagnostics and helps physicians make personalized, data-driven decisions. The company went public in June 2024, and Wood had actively bought its stock since the IPO. Former Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi also bets on this stock. In January, Pelosi bought 50 call options (a bet that a stock will rise) for Tempus AI valued at least $50,000. The calls will expire in January 2026. Last week, Tempus AI reported third-quarter earnings, with revenue of $334.2 million above the $328.67 million consensus, and a loss of 11 cents per share, better than the 18-cent loss analysts expected. “One of the hardest things to do, and a sign of business model endurance, is being able to slow down the rate of reinvesting back into the business and still maintain growth, which is exactly what we achieved this quarter,” the company said. Tempus AI stock dropped roughly 17% in the past five days, weighed down in part by the earnings and an overall market pullback. Still, the stock is up approximately 115% year to date. H.C. Wainwright analyst Yi Chen cut the firm’s price target on Tempus AI to $89 from $98 while maintaining a buy rating after the earnings, according to Thefly. Chen said the company’s sales growth in 2026 should remain healthy at above 20%, though it could be significantly lower than the rate in 2025. Canaccord analyst Kyle Mikson also lowered the firm’s price target, trimming it to $95 from $110 with a buy rating, Thefly reported. The adjustment, the firm said, is driven by lower revenue growth and operating margin expansion in the out years of their 10-year DCF model. Tempus AI is now the fifth biggest holding of the Ark Innovation ETF, accounting for 4.6%. Top 10 holdings of the Ark Innovation ETF as of November 10, 2025: Tesla: 12.42% Coinbase Global: 5.81% Roku: 5.66% Crispr Therapeutics AG: 5.04% Tempus AI: 4.60% Shopify: 4.59% Robinhood Markets: 4.46% Advanced Micro Devices: 4.30% Palantir Technologies: 4.18% Roblox Corp: 4.18% Wood says health care is the “most underappreciated application of AI.” “We’ve got 37 trillion cells in our body, and they’re going to be sequenced as we’re looking for cures,” Wood told CNBC in February. “I think the most underappreciated application of AI is health care. I think health care is responsible for an incredible amount of storage out there right now. Data is the name of the game,” Wood said.
