Cathie Wood, chief of Ark Investment Management, is known for actively trading her holdings, sometimes selling stocks during sharp market pullbacks.
Semiconductor stocks experienced a major market pullback on May 15, with the iShares Semiconductor ETF (SOXX) dropping roughly 4%. Amid that sell-off, Wood sold millions of dollars worth of shares in one chipmaker company.
In 2025, Wood’s flagship Ark Innovation ETF gained 35.49%, far outpacing the S&P 500’s return of 17.88% in the same period. So far this year, Wood’s flagship Ark Innovation ETF (ARKK) was down 3.81%, trailing the S&P 500’s gain of more than 8%.
Wood gained a reputation after the Ark Innovation ETF delivered a 153% return in 2020. But 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 May 7, the Ark Innovation ETF has delivered a five-year annualized return of -6.25%, while the S&P 500 has an annualized return of 13.80% over the same period, according to data from Morningstar.
Cathie Wood expects “great acceleration” brought by tech developments
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.
From 2014 to 2024, the Ark Innovation ETF wiped out $7 billion in investor wealth, according to an 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 the 2025 ranking.
In a March Bloomberg podcast, Wood says the global economy is not heading into a downturn, but into what she calls a “great acceleration” driven by AI and other breakthrough technologies.
“We’re not going into the Great Depression, we’re going into the great acceleration,” Wood said, pointing to how past technological revolutions reshaped economic growth.
Related: Qualcomm stock gets harsh reality check after semiconductor rally
She noted that global real GDP growth averaged just 0.6% between 1500 and 1900, before the Industrial Revolution lifted it to around 3% for more than a century. Now, she argues, a new wave of innovation could push growth much higher.
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“We think [technologies] are going to take growth into the 7 to 8% range,” Wood said, adding that the number may actually be conservative.
Wood also emphasized that AI is rapidly driving down costs across industries.
“These technologies are deflationary,” she said. “AI training costs are dropping 75% per year, and inference costs are falling as much as 85% to even 98% annually.”
In an earlier letter published in January, Wood rejects the “AI bubble” talk, saying that it “is years away” and that “the most powerful capital spending cycle in history” is coming.
Some investors seem to agree with Wood’s optimism. Over the past five days through May 14, the Ark Innovation ETF saw roughly $1.48 billion in net inflows, according to data from ETF research firm VettaFi.
Over the past five days through May 14, the Ark Innovation ETF saw roughly $1.48 billion in net inflows, according to data from ETF research firm VettaFi.Getty Images
Cathie Wood sells $40.6 million of Taiwan Semiconductor stock
On May 14 and 15, Wood’s Ark funds sold a total of 100,549 shares of Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSM), or TSMC, according to Ark’s daily trade information. These shares are valued at about $40.6 million.
Shares of TSMC, the world’s largest dedicated contract semiconductor foundry and a key supplier of Nvidia (NVDA), are up roughly 35% year to date as investors bet on a much bigger semiconductor market and an expanding role for the company in the AI supply chain.
Related: Cathie Wood buys $12.9 million of tumbling tech stock
TSMC just revealed that it now sees the semiconductor market reaching $1.5 trillion by 2030, topping its previous forecast of $1 trillion, according to its presentation materials ahead of a tech symposium on May 14, Reuters reported.
The company has become a key manufacturer for the AI industry because most advanced AI chips cannot be mass-produced without Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company’s chipmaking and advanced packaging technology.
Among the $1.5 trillion 2030 chip market, TSMC sees 55% of demand tied to AI and high-performance computing.
In April, TSMC reported rosy first-quarter 2026 results. Revenue increased 35.1%, net income and diluted EPS both increased 58.3%, and gross margin reached 66.2%.
Those figures are well above Wall Street’s expectations. The company also raised its full-year 2026 outlook to more than 30% revenue growth in U.S. dollars.
“AI-related demand continues to be extremely robust,” TSMC CEO C.C. Wei said on the Q1 earnings call.
“Our business in the first quarter was supported by strong demand for our leading-edge process technologies,” TSMC’s CFO Wendell Huang said in a press release. “Moving into second quarter 2026, we expect our business to be supported by continued strong demand for our leading-edge process technologies.”
Barclays raised its price target on TSMC to $470 from $450 and maintained an overweight rating on the shares after the earnings, The Fly reported.
The analysts said TSMC reported another quarter of” impressive delivery” with an earlier than expected guidance upgrade, the analyst wrote in a research note.
Barclays believes TSMC’s AI demand momentum is set to continue, making the stock “a core holding.”
TSMC is not in the top 10 holdings of Wood’s Ark Innovation ETF.
Top 10 holdings of the Ark Innovation ETF as of May 15, 2026:
Tesla, Inc. (TSLA) 11.16%
Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. (AMD) 5.57%
Circle Internet Group Inc. (CRCL) 5.23%
CRISPR Therapeutics AG (CRSP) 4.74%
Coinbase Global, Inc. (COIN) 4.72%
Robinhood Markets, Inc. (HOOD) 4.70%
Roku, Inc. (ROKU) 4.62%
Tempus AI, Inc. (TEM) 4.61%
Shopify Inc. (SHOP) 3.83%
Palantir Technologies Inc. (PLTR) 2.97%
Other than selling shares of TSMC, Wood’s recent trading activity included purchases of Cerebras Systems (CBRS), while selling Advanced Micro Devices (AMD), Twist Bioscience (TWST), Teradyne (TER), and CareDx (CDNA).
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This story was originally published by TheStreet on May 16, 2026, where it first appeared in the Investing section. Add TheStreet as a Preferred Source by clicking here.
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