Cathie Wood sees AI driving US$10 trillion global robotaxi revolution

Cathie Wood, the star stock picker behind Tesla’s stratospheric valuation, has doubled down on her bets, citing the convergence of artificial intelligence (AI), new energy and automation for her bullishness.

The worldwide market for self-driving taxis, which Tesla is approved to test in California, is set to skyrocket, the founder and CEO of Ark Investment Management said.

“We think US$8 [trillion] to US$10 trillion for the entire autonomous taxi opportunity throughout the world, from almost nothing,” is possible, Wood said at HSBC’s Global Investment Summit in Hong Kong on Thursday. “That’s how quickly AI is going to cause these things to happen.”

Wood’s track record over the past decade has been patchy. ARK Innovation ETF was the top-performing global equity fund with at least US$1 billion in assets in 2020. But Morningstar ranked ARK Invest Funds the worst “wealth destroyer” family of funds for the 10 years through 2023, based on the “decline in assets in dollar terms”. During that period, it generated 122 per cent in returns, less than half the 330 per cent gain in the Nasdaq.

Source: SCMP