Cathie Wood’s Ark Invest Buys $22.3 Million in Nvidia Shares

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — Cathie Wood is betting big on artificial intelligence once again.

Her firm, Ark Investment Management, bought 101,356 shares of Nvidia (NVDA) on August 17, according to daily trading data. The purchase was worth about $22.3 million based on the latest closing price of $219.74. The trade came just days before the semiconductor giant reports its fiscal second-quarter earnings on August 26.

Wood often moves in her favorite tech stocks right around earnings season. Shares of Nvidia have gained over 9% so far in August and are up 17.8% year to date. While that outperforms the S&P 500, it trails chipmaking peer AMD, which surged 126.2%, and the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index, which rallied 67.3% over the same period.

The relative weakness reflects growing investor concern over whether Nvidia can sustain its rapid growth. Hyperscale cloud providers are developing custom AI chips, while Wall Street questions if hundreds of billions in AI infrastructure spending will pay off.

Nvidia posted strong results three months ago that supported its growth thesis. For the fiscal first quarter ended April 26, non-GAAP earnings hit $1.87 per share, beating Wall Street estimates of $1.76. Revenue reached $81.6 billion, up 85% year over year, driven by record Data Center revenue of $75.2 billion, up 92%.

“The buildout of AI factories — the largest infrastructure expansion in human history — is accelerating at extraordinary speed,” said Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang in a statement. “Nvidia is uniquely positioned at the center of this transformation as the only platform that runs in every cloud, powers every frontier and open source model, and scales everywhere AI is produced.”

Wood stays firm on her view that AI will power long-term gains across artificial intelligence, blockchain, biomedical technology, and robotics. In a recent post on X, she noted U.S. corporate profits before tax sit at 13.2% of GDP, near multi-decade highs. She attributed part of this strength to companies using AI and productivity gains to protect margins.

“I think we’re still early in seeing how far that can go,” she said, adding that companies that use AI effectively will “separate themselves from the ones that don’t.”

She also found good signs in the latest U.S. jobs report, even as nonfarm payrolls fell by 23,000.

“It’s not as scary as it looks,” she said, pointing to higher prime age labor force participation, cooling wages, and productivity growth approaching 3%. She also suggested AI may be accelerating baby boomer retirements.

Along with Nvidia, Ark’s recent purchases included Rocket Lab (RKLB), Cerebras Systems (CBRS), and Block (XYZ). Meanwhile, Wood trimmed positions in Shopify (SHOP), Illumina (ILMN), 10x Genomics (TXG), Advanced Micro Devices (AMD), and Brera Holdings (SLMT).

Wood gained a major reputation after her flagship Ark Innovation ETF (ARKK) delivered a 153% return in 2020. However, her aggressive style brings deep losses during market downturns, as seen in 2022 when ARKK tumbled more than 60%.

While ARKK gained 35.49% last year—beating the S&P 500’s 17.88% return—it has struggled recently. As of August 19, ARKK is up 1.64% year to date, compared to a 12.36% gain for the S&P 500, according to Yahoo Finance data.

Over longer horizons, those swings have weighed on returns. As of August 18, ARKK delivered a five-year annualized return of -7.18%, while the S&P 500 gained 11.82% annualized, according to Morningstar data. An analysis by Morningstar’s Amy Arnott showed ARKK wiped out nearly $5 billion in investor wealth over the decade ended 2025, ranking as the fourth-biggest wealth destroyer among mutual funds and ETFs.

Investors have pulled cash in response. The fund saw roughly $2.8 billion in net outflows over the 12 months through August 13, according to VettaFi data.

Wall Street remains split on Nvidia’s near-term picture. Major customers like Microsoft, Meta, and Alphabet are updating their capital expenditure plans. Microsoft kept its fiscal 2026 outlook unchanged, Meta raised only the lower end of its forecast, and Alphabet raised guidance to $195 billion-$205 billion before seeing its stock drop.

Underlying risks also surfaced in Nvidia’s first-quarter fiscal 2027 results. Out of $58 billion in net income, $13.4 billion came from unrealized equity gains rather than operations. The company also depends heavily on a small buyer pool, with three hyperscalers generating 54% of its revenue.

Still, Bank of America analyst Vivek Arya called Nvidia’s valuation “compelling” at current levels, noting shares trade at a 34%-50% free cash flow discount. However, he warned of downside risks.

“If AI demand slows, both NVDA’s growth rate and balance sheet could come under pressure. The debate is how to reflect this reward-versus-risk in Nvidia’s valuation,” the analyst said.

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