Cathie Wood kicks off each day with Bible readings, drawing inspiration for her $13 billion ARK Invest fund named after the Ark of the Covenant. She launched it at 58 after AllianceBernstein dismissed her pitch for actively managed ETFs targeting disruptive innovation as too risky. Fast-forward to today in 2026, and Wood remains all-in on high-stakes bets like Tesla and AI, even as her top holdings bleed red year-to-date.

From Finance Prodigy to Innovation Maverick

Wood graduated summa cum laude in finance from USC, landed her first gig at 22 through economist Arthur Laffer, and honed her skills as chief economist at Jennison Associates for 18 years. She managed $5 billion at AllianceBernstein before striking out on her own in 2014. Her initial ETFs got seeded by Bill Hwang, whose Archegos Capital later imploded in a $36 billion scandal that sent him to jail. ARK soared in 2020 with ARKK more than doubling, earning Wood Bloomberg's nod as the best stock picker. But crashes followed: Morningstar dubbed ARKK the worst US equity fund in early 2022 and ranked ARK as the decade's top wealth destroyer by 2024, vaporizing $14.3 billion.

Undeterred, Wood doubles down on cryptocurrency and tech disruptors. ARK has long championed Coinbase (COIN), the crypto exchange where it holds significant stakes across ETFs, frequently trading shares amid market volatility. Current buys include Tesla (TSLA) down 20% YTD, CRISPR Therapeutics (CRSP) off 4%, Tempus AI (TEM) plunging 23%, Shopify (SHOP) sliding 22%, and Coinbase down 24%. She views these as future-shaping investments in EVs, gene editing, AI medicine, e-commerce, and crypto—echoing her devout belief in innovation's covenant with progress. ARK Invest continues to buy the dips, blending faith-driven conviction with macro bets on AI and blockchain.