Cathie Wood buys $50.1 million of tumbling Tesla stock
Cathie Wood’s ARK Invest bought about $50.1 million of Tesla shares on July 23 after the stock tumbled more than 14% on mixed second-quarter results. The purchase of 160,151 shares across ARK funds shows Wood doubling down on Tesla’s long-term AI and autonomy thesis while many investors sold.
Key Takeaways
- On July 23, Cathie Wood’s ARK funds bought 160,151 Tesla shares, valued at about $50.1 million at $313.03.
- Tesla stock fell 14.52% on July 23 and another 2% on July 24 after mixed Q2 earnings.
- ARK bought across four ETFs: ARKK, ARKQ, ARKW, and ARKX as broader investors sold the dip.
- Wood remains bullish on robotaxi and autonomy, previously projecting Tesla could hit $2,600 by 2030.
The move is a classic Wood playbook moment: buy a high-conviction megacap when the tape turns ugly. Tesla is now the worst-performing Magnificent Seven stock this year, down 30.39% as of July 24’s close, per reporting tied to the trade.
For more coverage of AI platforms and autonomy bets, see our Future Tech & AI Wonders hub.
What exactly did Cathie Wood buy?
According to TheStreet, ARK’s daily trade disclosures show Wood’s funds purchased 160,151 shares of Tesla (TSLA) on July 23. At a recent trading price of $313.03, that stake was worth roughly $50.1 million.
Barron’s reported the buy spanned about 160,000 shares across four products: the ARK Innovation ETF (ARKK), ARK Autonomous Technology & Robotics ETF (ARKQ), ARK Next Generation Internet ETF (ARKW), and ARK Space & Defense Innovation ETF (ARKX).
Investor’s Business Daily framed the same trade as a roughly $50 million add after Tesla’s near-15% slide, underscoring how aggressively ARK leaned into weakness.
Why did Tesla stock tumble before the purchase?
On July 22, Tesla reported adjusted earnings of 33 cents per share, missing analyst expectations of 51 cents. Revenue came in at $28.24 billion, beating estimates of $25.71 billion, according to figures cited via CNBC in TheStreet’s coverage.
Investors punished the miss. Shares fell 14.52% on July 23 and another 2% on July 24. Barron’s noted the stock failed to rebound early Friday, slipping about 0.6% near $317.86 after the open while the S&P 500 was flat.
Bank of America still reiterated a buy rating and $460 price target after the call, arguing Tesla remains early in monetizing autonomous driving technology.
Why is Cathie Wood buying when others are selling?
Wood has long treated Tesla as a multi-decade AI and robotics story, not a quarter-to-quarter auto trade. She predicted last year that Tesla could reach $2,600 by 2030, a level that would value the company at over $9 trillion.
In a June 8 post on X, she said she rode Tesla’s robotaxi fleet in Austin: “Smooth ride, no driver,” calling it remarkable after more than a decade of real-world AI training. She even joked that a $75 parking ticket was “a new operating expense line item for our Tesla model.”
Barron’s noted Tesla is already ARKK’s largest holding at nearly 10% of assets, and that Wood is effectively zigging while others zag as investors fret about AI timelines and rich valuations. Coming into Friday, Tesla was down about 29% year to date.
ARKK itself gained 35.49% in 2025, outpacing the S&P 500’s 17.88%, but was down 7.68% year to date as of July 23 even as the S&P 500 was up 8.28%, Yahoo Finance data cited by TheStreet showed.
Bottom line: Cathie Wood is not trading Tesla’s earnings print. She is buying the AI autonomy narrative on a sharp discount after a brutal post-results selloff.