Cathie Wood Net Worth: How Rich Did Ark Make Her?

Mike Harry
Feb 2024
5 min
Fact checked

As the founder and CEO of ARK Invest, Cathie Wood has become one of the most influential figures in the world of tech investing. Her innovative strategies and bold predictions have earned her a legion of dedicated followers on Twitter. But how did this former hedge fund manager become such a powerhouse in the industry? In this article, we'll take a closer look at Wood's rise to the top and explore her estimated net worth!

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Who Is Cathie Wood?

Cathie Wood is a renowned investor and the founder and CEO of ARK Investment Management. She is well known, and sometimes ridiculed, for her focus on investing in disruptive innovation.

Born in Los Angeles, California, Cathie earned a degree in finance and economics from the University of Southern California. She began her career at Capital Group as an assistant economist.

Cathie Wood CNBC
Cathie Wood CNBC

After this, she held roles at Jennison Associates LLC for 18 years, where she served as the Chief Economist, Equity Research Analyst, Portfolio Manager and Director. Later, she co-founded Alliance Bernstein's Global Thematic Strategies business, where she managed over $5 billion.

Wood founded ARK Investment Management in 2014, an investment management firm focusing on thematic investing in disruptive innovation that should transform the way the world works and deliver outsized growth as industries transform.

ARK Invest
ARK Invest

The firm's strategies revolve around themes like genomic sequencing, robotics, artificial intelligence, energy storage, and blockchain technology.

What is Cathie Wood known for?

Perhaps the most well-known of the funds managed by ARK is the ARK Innovation ETF (ARKK), which has a primary focus on disruptive technology.

The fund, under Wood's leadership, has made significant investments in companies like Tesla, Square, and Roku.

Cathie Wood Tesla Investments
Cathie Wood Tesla Investments

Her public presence is also significant. She often shares her thoughts and analyses on social media and through appearances on financial news networks, where she discusses her investment strategies and predictions about the future of technology.

Cathie is also a long-term bull on Bitcoin. She believes that Bitcoin has the potential to reach $1 million per coin by 2030.

Wood bases her bullishness on several factors, including Bitcoin's limited supply, its increasing adoption by institutions, and its use as a hedge against inflation.

Wood believes that Bitcoin's limited supply makes it a scarce asset, which is a key characteristic of a store of value.

She also believes that Bitcoin's increasing adoption by institutions is a sign that it is becoming more mainstream.

Cathie Wood Bitcoin
Cathie Wood Bitcoin

She's also known for her transparency, as ARK openly shares its research and views. ARK’s open-source research approach, built on collaboration and transparency, diverges from the often opaque practices of many investment firms.

Despite the firm's substantial success, Wood's investment strategies have also faced criticism due to their inherent riskiness.

The performance of her funds can be volatile, as seen during various market fluctuations.

How did Cathie Wood get rich?

Since Cathie Woods founded ARK invest in 2014, it has become one of the leading investment management firms in the world.

ARK Invest focuses on investing in companies that are at the forefront of technological innovation, such as Tesla, Square, and Roku.

Wood's investment strategy has proven to be successful, with ARK Invest's flagship fund, the ARK Innovation ETF, experiencing significant growth over the past few years. In 2020, the fund returned over 150%, making it one of the best-performing funds of the year.

Cathie Wood has however had a mixed record of investment returns. Her flagship fund, ARK Innovation ETF (ARKK), has outperformed the S&P 500 index in the long run, but it has also experienced some sharp declines.

Over the past 5 years, ARKK has returned 85.61%, compared to a return of 56.67% for the S&P 500. However, over the past year, ARKK has returned -30.48%, while the S&P 500 has returned -11.93%.

What is Cathie Wood net worth?

Cathie Wood's net worth is estimated to be between $100 to $200 million. This is a significant decrease from her peak net worth of $400 million in 2021. The decline in her net worth is due to the poor performance of her funds, particularly ARK Innovation ETF (ARKK), which has lost over 70% of its value since its peak in 2021.

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