Cathie Wooden, head of Ark Funding Administration, has a historical past of shopping for shares shortly after their IPOs.
Lately, Wooden’s Ark funds have invested in newly public corporations reminiscent of Tempus AI (TEM), Coinbase (COIN), and CoreWeave (CRWV), reflecting her technique of gaining early publicity to high-growth companies in synthetic intelligence, cryptocurrency, and cloud computing.
Now, Wooden is making one other IPO guess, shopping for greater than $529 million value of SpaceX inventory.
In 2025, the flagship Ark Innovation ETF gained 35.49%, far outpacing the S&P 500’s return of 17.88% in the identical interval. However up to now this yr, Wooden’s flagship Ark Innovation ETF (ARKK) is down 2.85%, whereas the S&P 500 surged 8.56%, Yahoo Finance information exhibits.
Wooden gained a popularity after the Ark Innovation ETF delivered a 153% return in 2020. Nevertheless, her type additionally brings painful losses in bearish markets, as seen in 2022, when the Ark Innovation ETF tumbled greater than 60%.
These swings have weighed on Wooden’s long-term features. As of June 12, the Ark Innovation ETF has delivered a five-year annualized return of -8.06%, whereas the S&P 500 has an annualized return of 11.84% over the identical interval, in accordance with information from Morningstar.
Cathie Wooden expects a “nice acceleration” introduced by know-how developments
Wooden focuses on high-tech corporations throughout synthetic intelligence, blockchain, biomedical know-how, and robotics. She thinks these companies have sturdy progress potential, although their volatility typically causes fluctuations within the Ark’s funds.
Based on Morningstar analyst Bella Albrecht, two of Wooden’s Ark funds have been among the many worst-performing ETFs within the first quarter of 2026. The Ark Subsequent Era Web ETF (ARKW) ranked second on the listing, whereas the ARK Innovation ETF positioned fifth.
Over the previous 12 months by means of June 11, the ARK Innovation ETF noticed roughly $294.27 million in web outflows.Getty Photographs
From 2014 to 2024, the Ark Innovation ETF worn out $7 billion in investor wealth, in accordance with a March 2025 evaluation by Morningstar’s analyst Amy Arnott. That made it the third-biggest wealth destroyer amongst mutual funds and ETFs in Arnott’s rating. The analyst hasn’t up to date her rating.
Extra SpaceX:
Wooden stated on the June 5 episode of “Within the Know” that she is carefully watching June 17, when Kevin Warsh, the brand new Federal Reserve chair, proclaims the subsequent rate of interest resolution.
“I do consider Kevin Warsh is aware of that rates of interest have to come back down, mortgage charges at the least. And if inflation comes down as productiveness is growing, regardless of how sturdy the financial system is, I believe he’ll minimize charges,” Wooden stated.
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Wooden argued that productiveness enhancements introduced by know-how are serving to drive the financial system whereas decreasing inflation. She added that oil costs already look like peaking and will fall additional if the Iran conflict is resolved.
In a March Bloomberg podcast, Wooden says the worldwide financial system isn’t heading right into a downturn, however into what she calls a “nice acceleration” pushed by AI and different breakthrough applied sciences.
“We’re not going into the Nice Despair, we’re going into the nice acceleration,” Wooden stated. “These applied sciences are deflationary… AI coaching prices are dropping 75% per yr, and inference prices are falling as a lot as 85% to even 98% yearly.”
However not all traders agree with Wooden’s optimism. Over the previous 12 months by means of June 11, the ARK Innovation ETF noticed roughly $294.27 million in web outflows, in accordance with information from ETF analysis agency VettaFi.
Cathie Wooden buys $529.7million of SpaceX inventory
On June 12, Wooden’s Ark funds purchased a complete of three,291,184 shares of House Exploration Applied sciences Corp (SPCX), extra generally generally known as SpaceX. Based mostly on the newest closing value of $160.95, these shares have been value about $529.7 million.
June 12 was SpaceX’s first day of buying and selling, and its shares surged 19%. The rally pushed Elon Musk’s web value above $1 trillion, making him the world’s first trillionaire. Musk additionally serves as CEO of EV maker Tesla (TSLA).
Musk based SpaceX in 2002 as a reusable rocket firm, however as we speak its solely worthwhile enterprise is the Starlink satellite tv for pc web division. Based on the corporate’s prospectus, SpaceX has an collected deficit of $41.3 billion as of March 31.
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Wooden was already a SpaceX investor earlier than the corporate’s IPO. Ark Make investments first purchased SpaceX shares in late 2023, and it later turned the most important holding within the agency’s roughly $1 billion inner enterprise fund, in accordance with Enterprise Insider.
Wooden has lengthy been one in every of Musk’s greatest supporters. Throughout a 2023 CNBC present coated by TheStreet’s Moz Farooque, she stated durations of turmoil typically carry out Musk’s finest work.
“These tough instances, although, spur Elon’s creativity. He’s a troubleshooter and a superb technologist,” Wooden stated.
Nonetheless, many different traders and analysts are skeptical about SpaceX’s momentum, citing valuation issues and a excessive retail investor allocation within the IPO.
“The extra fast concern is the heavy retail allocation,” veteran technical dealer James DePorre wrote in a latest publish on TheStreet Professional. “The retail allocation is 30% of the providing, which is far increased than the everyday 5 to 10%.”
DePorre famous that retail traders who obtained an allocation at $135 have an incentive to promote their shares if the worth strikes meaningfully increased. “That may create some provide stress,” he wrote.
Aside from shopping for SpaceX inventory, Wooden’s latest trades additionally included promoting shares of Tesla (TSLA), Superior Micro Gadgets (AMD), Rocket Lab (RKLB), Roku (ROKU), and Chinese language tech agency Baidu (BIDU).
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This story was initially printed by TheStreet on Jun 15, 2026, the place it first appeared within the Investing part. Add TheStreet as a Most popular Supply by clicking right here.
