Cathie Wood, chief of Ark Investment Management, is no stranger to buying into momentum.
That’s what she did in the past week, initiating a position in a tech stock that has rallied more than 40% over the past month.
In 2025, the flagship Ark Innovation ETF gained 35.49%, far outpacing the S&P 500’s return of 17.88% in the same period. But so far this year, Wood’s flagship Ark Innovation ETF (ARKK) is up 2.98%, trailing the S&P 500’s gain of 9.57%, Yahoo Finance data shows.
Wood gained a reputation after the Ark Innovation ETF delivered a 153% return in 2020. However, her style also brings painful losses in bearish markets, as seen in 2022, when the Ark Innovation ETF tumbled more than 60%.
Those swings have weighed on Wood’s long-term gains. As of June 18, the Ark Innovation ETF has delivered a five-year annualized return of -7.42%, while the S&P 500 has an annualized return of 12.48% over the same period, according to data from Morningstar.
Cathie Wood flags “the deflationary impact” of tech innovation
Wood focuses on high-tech companies across artificial intelligence, blockchain, biomedical technology, and robotics. She thinks these businesses have strong growth potential, though their volatility often causes fluctuations in the Ark’s funds.
According to Morningstar analyst Bella Albrecht, two of Wood’s Ark funds were among the worst-performing ETFs in the first quarter of 2026. The Ark Next Generation Internet ETF (ARKW) ranked second on the list, while the ARK Innovation ETF placed fifth.
Over the past 5 days through June 18, the ARK Innovation ETF saw roughly $770.13 million in net outflows.Getty Images
From 2014 to 2024, the Ark Innovation ETF wiped out $7 billion in investor wealth, according to a March 2025 analysis by Morningstar’s analyst Amy Arnott. That made it the third-biggest wealth destroyer among mutual funds and ETFs in Arnott’s ranking. The analyst hasn’t updated her ranking.
Wood believes investors have been focusing on the wrong signals as they assess the outlook for inflation, interest rates, and stocks.
In a June 5 post on X, the ARK Invest founder said the bond market is increasingly reflecting the deflationary impact of technological innovation, particularly artificial intelligence, rather than the inflation risks many investors still fear.
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Wood pointed to the continued flattening of the Treasury yield curve despite a sharp rise in oil prices over the past year. In previous cycles, she noted, an energy shock of that magnitude would have pushed long-term yields higher.
Wood believes the bond market is “discounting something much more powerful: the deflationary impact of technological innovation, particularly artificial intelligence, which is beginning to increase productivity across broad swaths of the economy. ”
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She also said easing tensions with Iran and a decline in oil prices could push inflation even lower.
“The next phase of this cycle could be characterized by accelerating growth, declining inflation, falling interest rates, and a strengthening U.S. dollar,” Wood said. “That combination would create a remarkably supportive backdrop for innovation-led equities and the technologies driving the next productivity boom.”
Not all investors agree with Wood’s optimism. Over the past 5 days through June 18, the ARK Innovation ETF saw roughly $770.13 million in net outflows, according to data from ETF research firm VettaFi.
Cathie Wood buys $52 million of Snowflake stock
On June 18, Wood’s Ark funds bought 223,690 shares of Snowflake Inc. (SNOW), according to its daily trading information. Based on the latest closing price of $232.29, these stocks were worth about $52 million.
Snowflake is a cloud data and analytics company that helps businesses handle large amounts of data.
Shares of Snowflake have surged 41.43% over the past month, driven largely by a 36.48% jump on May 28 after the company delivered stronger-than-expected earnings and announced plans to spend $6 billion on Amazon Web Services infrastructure over the next five years. That was Snowflake’s biggest single-day gain on record.
Related: Cathie Wood sells $8.7 million of tumbling AI stock
For its fiscal first quarter ended April 30, Snowflake reported adjusted earnings of 39 cents per share and revenue of $1.39 billion, which was up 33% from a year earlier. Analysts were expecting earnings of 32 cents per share and revenue of $1.32 billion, CNBC reported.
Snowflake also issued upbeat guidance. It forecast fiscal second-quarter product revenue of $1.415 billion to $1.420 billion and an adjusted operating margin of 12.5%. Wall Street was looking for product revenue of $1.37 billion and an adjusted operating margin of 11.9%.
“AI continues to be a powerful tailwind for Snowflake, and Q1 marks a clear inflection point in that journey. With Cortex Code and Snowflake Intelligence, we are extending from the trusted foundation for enterprise data and context to become the control plane for the Agentic Enterprise,” Snowflake’s CEO Sridhar Ramaswamy said in a statement.
“We are seeing strong momentum from both AI-driven acceleration of our core platform and growing adoption of our first-party AI products, positioning Snowflake to lead in this new era.”
Wall Street analysts have become more bullish on Snowflake following the earnings report.
For example, Barclays raised its price target to $285 from $272 and maintained an equal weight rating, The Fly reported. Analyst Raimo Lenschow noted that “faster product velocity is clear and Cortex Code seems to be driving a multi-pronged, positive effect on usage that is still early.”
Bank of America raised its price target to $300 from $205 while reiterating a buy rating. The firm said in a research note that Snowflake’s results and outlook are “solid evidence supporting our long-term positive view that Snowflake is a share gainer in a large and expanding AI business intelligence opportunity.”
Snowflake is not in Ark Innovation ETF’s top 10 holdings.
Top 10 holdings of the Ark Innovation ETF as of June 18, 2026:
Tesla Inc. (TSLA) 9.50%
Robinhood Markets Inc. (HOOD) 4.93%
CRISPR Therapeutics AG (CRSP) 4.87%
Tempus AI Inc. (TEM) 4.83%
Space Exploration Technologies Corp. (SPCX) 4.71%
Advanced Micro Devices Inc. (AMD) 4.51%
Shopify Inc. (SHOP) 4.07%
Coinbase Global Inc. (COIN) 3.85%
Circle Internet Group Inc. (CRCL) 3.45%
Twist Bioscience Corp. (TWST) 3.33%
Other than adding positions of Snowflake, Wood’s recent trading activity included buying shares of Eli Lilly (LLY), SpaceX (SPCX) and Coinbase Global (COIN).
Meanwhile, she trimmed a wide range of holdings, including Palantir (PLTR), Roku (ROKU), Advanced Micro Devices (AMD), Tesla (TSLA), Amazon (AMZN), Shopify (SHOP), CoreWeave (CRWV), Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing (TSM), SoFi Technologies (SOFI), Figma (FIG), and Kratos Defense & Security Solutions (KTOS).
Related: Millions of Apple users losing access to Microsoft Office
This story was originally published by TheStreet on Jun 20, 2026, where it first appeared in the Investing section. Add TheStreet as a Preferred Source by clicking here.
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