Cathie Wood buys $11.2 million of popular AI stock

Cathie Wood, chief of Ark Investment Management, is known for making bold bets on disruptive technology companies, particularly those she believes have strong long-term growth potential.

She sometimes moves quickly in and out of stocks as their prices fluctuate. That’s what she just did with Tempus AI (TEM), buying shares right after selling them.

Last year, the 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) is up 4.98% as of Oct. 30, while the S&P 500 surged 10.73%, Yahoo Finance data shows.

Wood gained a reputation after the Ark Innovation ETF delivered a rosy 153% return in 2020. But her style also brings painful losses in bearish markets, as seen in 2022, when the ETF tumbled more than 60%.

Those swings have weighed on Wood’s long-term gains. As of Oct. 30, her Ark Innovation ETF has delivered a five-year annualized return of -7.66%, while the S&P 500 has an annualized return of 10.48% over the same period, according to data from Morningstar.

Cathie Wood remains optimistic about AI and tech revolution

Wood focuses on high-tech companies across artificial intelligence, blockchain, biomedical technology, and robotics. She believes these businesses have strong growth potential, but their volatility often causes fluctuations in the Ark’s funds.

Over the decade ended 2025, the Ark Innovation ETF wiped out nearly $5 billion in investor wealth, according to a report by Morningstar’s analyst Amy Arnott. That made it the fourth-biggest wealth destroyer among mutual funds and ETFs in the ranking. 

Wood defended her investment strategy after an audience member at a recent summit questioned ARK’s performance compared with the Invesco QQQ Trust (QQQ).

Related: Cathie Wood sells $16 million of surging tech stock

“Investors deserve to understand both their returns and the decisions behind them,” Wood said in a post on X on Oct. 5.

She argued that the ARK Innovation ETF (ARKK) and QQQ are built differently. QQQ tracks the Nasdaq-100 Index, while ARK actively invests in companies it believes are driving disruptive innovation across industries including healthcare, financial services, and transportation.

Wood has long been optimistic about AI, which she sees as a major driver of productivity, economic growth, and corporate profits in the years ahead. She has also pushed back against fears that AI could pose an existential threat to humanity.

In September, Wood reposted a post by David Sacks on X, saying he makes a good case that the “AI will kill humanity” headlines were orchestrated.

In August, Wood said U.S. corporate profits remain unusually strong, with domestic profits before tax at 13.2% of GDP, a level she said is near multi-decade highs. 

Some of that strength came from the massive monetary and fiscal stimulus during the pandemic, but Wood believes another factor is helping sustain margins today: companies are leaning into AI and productivity gains to protect them.

“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.”

Not all investors agree with Wood’s optimism. Over the past 12 months through Oct. 29, the Ark Innovation ETF saw roughly $1.64 billion in net outflows, according to data from ETF research firm VettaFi. 

Cathie Wood buys $11.2 million of Tempus AI stock

On Oct. 30, Wood’s Ark funds bought a total of 154,521 shares of Tempus AI Inc. (TEM), according to Ark’s daily trading information sent to TheStreet. These shares were worth about $12.0 million based on the transaction price.

The purchase came right after two days of selling. Wood’s Ark Innovation ETF sold 7,625 Tempus shares on Oct. 29 and 58,371 shares on Oct. 28.

Tempus AI is a healthcare tech company that provides AI-driven diagnostic tools that help doctors make treatment decisions. It also sells the data generated from its tests to pharmaceutical companies for drug development.

Tempus shares fell 7.2% on Oct. 30, the day Wood made the purchase. The stock is up about 22% year-to-date, helped by a sharp rally in August after Merck (MRK) and Moderna (MRNA) reported positive late-stage trial results for their personalized cancer vaccine.

The company is set to report its third-quarter financial results on Nov. 2, Monday. Wood’s purchase could also be a bet on earnings. 

Tempus AI beat estimates in each of its last four reports. But its stock fell on all four earnings days.

Still, Wall Street is getting more bullish on the AI healthcare company.

On Oct. 14, JPMorgan analyst Casey Woodring raised the firm’s price target on Tempus to $70 from $45, while Bank of America lifted its target to $75 from $52 on Oct. 9, The Fly reported. Both firms maintained Neutral ratings on the stock ahead of the third-quarter earnings.

Canaccord was more bullish, raising its price target to $95 from $80 on Oct. 12 while maintaining a Buy rating.

The firm pointed to growing adoption of AI in life science tools, along with higher revenue estimates and improving margins, as reasons for the increase.

Canaccord said recent developments in the industry show that companies are stepping up efforts to use AI in drug discovery, which could create more opportunities for Tempus.

The firm also acknowledged concerns about the potential use of AI to develop biological weapons, but it believes sufficient safeguards are in place. It expects those concerns to be temporary and sees AI-related benefits helping drive revenue growth and margin expansion.

Wood has long been bullish on the combination of artificial intelligence and healthcare, calling healthcare “the most profound application of AI” in a March interview with Bloomberg.

“It includes the convergence of sequencing technologies, AI, and gene editing,” Wood said. “We have 35 to 40 trillion cells in our body generating data, and AI is a data project.”

Tempus AI has long been one of the top 10 holdings of Wood’s Ark Innovation ETF. As of Oct. 30, the stock ranks third.

Top 10 Holdings in the Ark Innovation ETF by market value and weight as of Oct. 30, 2026:

• Tesla (TSLA): $776.1 million, 10.77%
• SpaceX (SPCX): $443.6 million, 6.15%
• Tempus AI (TEM): $415.8 million, 5.77%
• Circle Internet Group (CRCL): $334.8 million, 4.65%
• CRISPR Therapeutics (CRSP): $325.2 million, 4.51%
• Coinbase Global (COIN): $285.3 million, 3.96%
• Twist Bioscience (TWST): $260.0 million, 3.61%
• OpenAI Group: $249.4 million, 3.46%
• Shopify (SHOP): $225.3 million, 3.13%
• Nvidia (NVDA): $212.2 million, 2.94%

Other than buying Tempus AI shares, Wood’s latest trades included buying shares of Illumina (ILMN), Circle Internet Group (CRCL), Coinbase Global (COIN), Pacific Biosciences of California (PACB), Robinhood Markets (HOOD), Arcturus Therapeutics (ARCT), and Beam Therapeutics (BEAM).

She also trimmed positions in Bullish (BLSH), Eli Lilly (LLY), and CareDx (CDNA).

Related: Veteran fund manager revamps Alphabet stock price target after brutal sell-off