While everyone's busy chasing the next Nvidia (NVDA, Financials), Cathie Wood is leaning into a very different corner of the AI story: healthcare.
In a set of recent Bloomberg interviews, the Ark Invest founder said something most investors aren't ready to hear — that the biggest gains from artificial intelligence may not come from the companies building the tech, but from the ones quietly using it to rewrite the rules of science.
She's talking about drug discovery. Instead of spending years testing combinations in the lab, researchers are now training algorithms to predict what works — and they're getting results in weeks. Costs are falling. Timelines are shrinking. And according to Wood, the market hasn't priced in just how big that shift is going to be.
It's flying under the radar, according to her.
And it's not just AI that's making her bullish. Wood believes the U.S. is entering a more innovation-friendly stretch — something she didn't feel under former SEC Chair Gary Gensler, who she says nearly pushed the crypto industry out of the country. That tide is turning, she says, with digital assets regaining traction and the tech ecosystem breathing a bit easier.
Add in the latest round of tariff negotiations — which Wood frames as a “tax cut” in disguise — and you've got the makings of a policy backdrop that could supercharge overlooked sectors.
This is classic Ark playbook: Go where the long-term story is strong, even if the headlines haven't caught up. In the past, that meant Tesla. Then bitcoin. Now, it might just be AI-fueled healthcare.
If Wood's right, the next wave of big winners won't be making chips. They'll be making cures.
