Episode summary
Cathie Wood Unveils ARK Invest's Big Ideas for 2026 | Bloomberg Businessweek
Bloomberg Businessweek Daily
· · Hosts: Carol Massar, Tim Stenovec · Guests: Cathie Wood
Summary
Cathie Wood argued that the U.S. is entering a new investing regime driven by deregulation, lower taxes, lower inflation and lower interest rates. She said the new depreciation rules should push ARK’s view of the effective U.S. corporate tax rate to roughly 10%, and that the changes are not yet fully priced into equities. She also said the AI buildout is still early, with data-center spending rising from about $500 billion last year toward $1.4 trillion over the next five years.
Wood framed 2026 as part of a larger technology revolution spanning five platforms: robotics, energy storage, AI, blockchain and multiomic sequencing. She said those platforms could lift investment to 12% of GDP, push productivity growth into the 4% to 6% range, and help real GDP growth average more than 7% by the end of the decade. On labor, she argued that technology has historically been a net job creator, while warning that entry-level hiring is already weak for 16- to 24-year-olds.
She also leaned into Tesla as a convergence play, saying robo-taxis could account for 90% of its valuation by the end of the decade and that humanoid robots represent a $26 trillion opportunity. In health care, she pointed to regulatory easing at the FDA, especially around animal testing for monoclonal antibodies, and said ARK is seeing renewed investor interest in space exploration, defense, autonomous technology and robotics.
Key takeaways
- Cathie Wood said ARK expects the U.S. effective corporate tax rate to fall to roughly 10% because of new depreciation rules and other tax changes.
- Wood said AI-related data-center spending was about $500 billion last year and needs to reach $1.4 trillion within five years.
- Wood forecast that five converging innovation platforms could lift productivity growth to 4% to 6% and real GDP growth to more than 7% by decade-end.
- Wood said Tesla is not an auto company and argued robo-taxis could make up 90% of its valuation by the end of the decade.
- Wood said ARK is seeing year-to-date inflows of roughly $1 billion, concentrated in space exploration and defense, autonomous tech and robotics.
Notable quotes
“we think the the the combination of those is actually going to drive the returns on invested capital in the US up relative to those in the rest of the world”
“we think that number needs to go to 1.4 trillion in the next five years to accommodate the AI boom”
“We believe this uh this five platform innovation uh strategy or or or boom uh is going to move to 12% of GDP”
How the episode opens
Bloomberg Audio Studios podcasts radio news. — You're listening to Bloomberg Business Week with Carol Masser and Tim Stenc on Bloomberg Radio.
Well, 2026, as you know, off and running follows three years of double-digit gains for the S&P 500. A total gain of around 80% over those three years. Three years of back-to-back gains as well.
That's the S&P. three years of back-to-back gains also for the NASDAQ 100, a total gain of about 130% there. And yet, even with the stock market gains in the US in 2025, last year measured against equities worldwide minus the US, stocks have risen around 30%, roughly double the S&P 500's gain.
That's according to the MSCI's index. Here to talk about 2026, the economy investment ideas. Great to have back with us the founder, CEO, and CIO of Arc Invest, Kathy Wood.
She joins us from St. Petersburg, Florida. Kathy, great to have you here.
Happy New Year.
Happy New Year, Carol and Tim. Very happy to be here again.
Well, it's great to have you here. And I want to start with what stocks did here in the US really well last year, but if you look at global stocks, you could say that there was certainly some underperformance uh by the US. You've invested in a lot of US names, but also a lot outside the US.
And I think about Chinese companies, BYD, BYU, Alibaba. Are you looking for more opportunities outside the US at this point or and and I and I wonder if you think it's time for maybe US stocks to take
Uh I think um we we're very focused on uh the deregulation, lower taxes and what we believe will be lower inflation, much lower inflation and lower interest rates in the US.
From the episode’s captions: roughly the first two minutes, lightly cleaned. Keep watching on YouTube →
Topics
- ai productivity
- ark big ideas report
- long-term innovation
- gdp growth forecast
- exponential technology convergence
Companies and tickers mentioned
- ARK Invest
Watch the episode
Watch “Cathie Wood Unveils ARK Invest's Big Ideas for 2026 | Bloomberg Businessweek” on YouTube
Summary, takeaways and quote selection by Octagon. Quotes are short excerpts; the full conversation is in the episode.
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