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Cathie Wooden, head of Ark Funding Administration, is thought for making daring bets on disruptive innovation, largely within the U.S.
However this week, she regarded overseas, shopping for an Asian chipmaker as investor optimism round AI infrastructure and semiconductors returns following indicators of easing tariffs.
In April, President Donald Trump raised tariffs on Chinese language items to as excessive as 145%, prompting swift retaliation from Beijing and triggering a pointy market sell-off as tensions flared between the world’s two largest economies.
Earlier this month, the U.S. and China struck a uncommon deal in Geneva to briefly minimize tariffs as either side work towards a broader settlement.
Wooden’s funds noticed a quick bump after Trump gained the presidency final November, however that momentum didn’t go far. Her flagship Ark Innovation ETF (ARKK)  underperformed the S&P 500 index amid broader market volatility.
Yr-to-date, ARKK is down 2.67%, barely worse than the S&P 500’s lack of 1.34%.
Wooden gained a outstanding 153% in 2020, which helped construct her fame and appeal to loyal buyers. Nonetheless, her long-term efficiency has made many others skeptical of her aggressive type.
As of Could 23, Ark Innovation ETF, with $5 billion beneath administration, has delivered a five-year annualized return of damaging 1.75%. As compared, the S&P 500 has an annualized return of 16.20% over the identical interval.
The Ark Innovation ETF has seen a internet outflow of $2.45 billion over the previous 12 months via Could 21, with $446.69 million exiting previously month, in accordance with ETF analysis agency VettaFi.Picture supply: Paras Griffin/Getty Pictures
Wooden’s funding technique is simple: Her Ark ETFs usually purchase shares in rising high-tech corporations in fields equivalent to synthetic intelligence, blockchain, biomedical know-how, and robotics.
Wooden says these corporations have the potential to reshape industries, however their volatility results in main fluctuations in Ark funds’ values.
The Ark Innovation ETF worn out $7 billion in investor wealth over the ten years ending in 2024, in accordance with an evaluation by Morningstar’s analyst Amy Arnott. That made it the third-biggest wealth destroyer amongst mutual funds and ETFs in Arnott’s rating.
Wooden just lately mentioned the U.S. is popping out of a three-year “rolling recession” and heading right into a productivity-led restoration that might set off a broader bull market.
In a letter to buyers revealed on April 30, she dismissed predictions of a recession dragging into 2026, as she expects “extra readability on tariffs, taxes, laws, and rates of interest over the subsequent three to 6 months.”
“If the present tariff turmoil leads to freer commerce, as tariffs and non-tariff boundaries come down in tandem with declines in different taxes, laws, and rates of interest, then actual GDP development and productiveness ought to shock on the excessive aspect of expectations sooner or later throughout the second half of this 12 months,” she wrote.
She additionally struck an optimistic tone for tech shares.
“Throughout the present turbulent transition within the US, we predict shoppers and companies are prone to speed up the shift to technologically enabled innovation platforms together with synthetic intelligence, robotics, power storage, blockchain know-how, and multiomics sequencing,” she mentioned.
However not all buyers share Wooden’s optimism. The Ark Innovation ETF has seen a internet outflow of $2.45 billion over the previous 12 months via Could 21, with $446.69 million exiting previously month, in accordance with ETF analysis agency VettaFi.
On Could 19 and 20, Wooden’s Ark funds purchased 241,047 shares of Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Firm, or TSMC (TSM) .
That chunk of inventory is valued at roughly $46.3 million and is considered one of Wooden’s largest current trades.
Taiwan Semiconductor is the world’s main contract chipmaker and a key provider to Nvidia (NVDA)  and Superior Micro Gadgets (AMD) . It manufactures superior chips utilized in synthetic intelligence purposes, together with people who energy massive language fashions developed by corporations equivalent to Microsoft (MSFT)  and Google (GOOGL) .
TSMC shares are down 4.2% thus far in 2025, however the inventory has rebounded sharply previously month, climbing practically 27% as buyers reassess the influence of U.S.-China tariffs on the chipmaker’s outlook.
In April, the corporate reported sturdy first-quarter outcomes, with earnings per share elevated 60.4% to $2.12 per ADR. Income reached $25.53 billion, a 41.6% enhance year-over-year.
For the present quarter, TSMC expects income of $28.4 billion to $29.2 billion. The midpoint of $28.8 billion topped Wall Road’s goal of $26.92 billion.
“Shifting into second quarter 2025, we anticipate our enterprise to be supported by sturdy demand for our industry-leading 3-nanometer and 5-nanometer applied sciences,” TSMC Chief Monetary Officer Wendell Huang mentioned.
The bullish guess isn’t with out danger. TSMC is uncovered to geopolitical tensions and commerce uncertainties between the U.S. and China, which may harm the corporate’s supply and income.
“Whereas now we have not seen any modifications in our prospects’ habits thus far, uncertainties and dangers from the potential influence from tariff insurance policies exist,” Huang mentioned in a TSMC information launch.
Nvidia’s CEO, Jensen Huang, mentioned final September that Nvidia had the flexibility to show to different suppliers because it had sufficient mental property. However he flagged that the change may decrease chip high quality.
Extra Nvidia:
“Possibly the method know-how just isn’t as nice, possibly we can’t be capable to get the identical stage of efficiency or value, however we can present the provision,” Huang mentioned at Goldman Sachs’s Communacopia + Expertise Convention. “Within the occasion something have been to occur, we must always be capable to choose up and fab it elsewhere.”
Nonetheless, he praised TSMC’s unmatched capabilities.
“TSMC is the world’s greatest by an unbelievable margin…the nice chemistry, their agility, the truth that they might scale,” he added.
Within the first quarter, Wooden bought 8,996 TSMC shares. The inventory just isn’t in her prime 10 holdings.
Billionaire investor Stanley Druckenmiller additionally made a daring guess in TSMC, including 491,265 shares within the first quarter, which represents a rise of 456.9% in his stake.
