It’s been a whirlwind June for Cathie Wood’s ARK Invest, as the firm made bold moves in the wake of SpaceX’s high-profile IPO and a surging tech sector. ARK Invest, known for its active management and focus on disruptive innovation, sold approximately $163 million in stock on June 16, 2026, to bankroll further purchases of SpaceX shares, according to Investor’s Business Daily. This move followed an even larger sale the previous week, when ARK liquidated an estimated $327 million worth of stock ahead of SpaceX’s market debut on June 12.
SpaceX’s IPO was nothing short of spectacular. The company, led by Elon Musk, priced its shares at $135 each on June 11, 2026. When trading opened on June 12, shares popped to $150 and closed the day at $160.95, reflecting a 19% gain, as reported by Reuters, Forbes, and TechCrunch. ARK Invest seized the opportunity, acquiring 3.29 million shares on the debut day—a stake valued at over $500 million, according to CoinDesk and Barron’s. This aggressive buying spree underscored Wood’s long-standing conviction in Musk’s ventures, with SpaceX now representing a significant slice of ARK’s space-focused portfolios.
To fund these purchases, ARK Invest made some notable divestitures. The largest was the sale of 665,136 shares of Roku, worth at least $77.7 million, right after Roku’s stock soared 20% on news of a $22 billion acquisition deal from Fox Corporation. The firm also parted with 141,408 shares of Advanced Micro Devices (AMD), totaling at least $23 million, and 534,967 shares of 10x Genomics, valued at $15 million, according to Investor’s Business Daily. Most of these sales came from the flagship ARK Innovation ETF (ARKK), which shed roughly 2.3 million shares worth $143.4 million. The ARK Autonomous Tech & Robotics ETF (ARKQ) sold half a million shares valued at $13.8 million, and the ARK Space & Defense Innovation ETF (ARKX) sold 292,100 shares worth $6.2 million.
With these moves, SpaceX became a cornerstone of ARK’s space-related holdings. As of mid-June 2026, SpaceX accounted for 4.3% of the ARK Innovation ETF’s $7.3 billion in net assets, 6.25% of the ARK Autonomous Technology & Robotics ETF, and 7.19% of the ARK Space & Defense Innovation ETF. This rebalancing reflects ARK’s thematic strategy, which, as highlighted in its Big Ideas 2026 research report, targets disruptive innovation across artificial intelligence, robotics, energy, blockchain, space, and biology.
But ARK Invest’s approach is not without controversy or volatility. Cathie Wood’s reputation as a momentum investor is well-earned. In 2020, her flagship ARK Innovation ETF delivered a staggering 153% return, according to Yahoo Finance. Yet, the strategy’s risks are clear: in 2022, the same fund plummeted more than 60%. Over the five years leading up to June 18, 2026, ARK Innovation ETF recorded an annualized return of -7.42%, while the S&P 500 returned a robust 12.48%, according to Morningstar data. From 2014 to 2024, the fund wiped out $7 billion in investor wealth, making it the third-biggest wealth destroyer among mutual funds and ETFs, as reported by Morningstar’s Amy Arnott.
Despite these bruising swings, Wood remains undeterred. She’s doubled down on her belief in the transformative power of technology. On June 5, 2026, Wood remarked on X that “the bond market is increasingly reflecting the deflationary impact of technological innovation, particularly artificial intelligence, which is beginning to increase productivity across broad swaths of the economy.” She pointed to the flattening Treasury yield curve, even as oil prices rose, as a sign investors are underestimating the deflationary effects of tech. “The next phase of this cycle could be characterized by accelerating growth, declining inflation, falling interest rates, and a strengthening U.S. dollar,” Wood wrote. “That combination would create a remarkably supportive backdrop for innovation-led equities and the technologies driving the next productivity boom.”
Not everyone shares Wood’s optimism. According to VettaFi, over the five days leading up to June 18, the ARK Innovation ETF saw net outflows of about $770 million. Morningstar analyst Bella Albrecht noted that two of Wood’s funds ranked among the worst-performing ETFs in the first quarter of 2026, with ARK Next Generation Internet ETF (ARKW) and ARK Innovation ETF placing second and fifth respectively on the list.
Still, ARK Invest’s trading activity in June was anything but timid. On June 18, Wood’s funds bought 223,690 shares of Snowflake Inc. (SNOW), a cloud data and analytics company, for about $52 million based on the closing price of $232.29. Snowflake’s stock had surged 41.43% over the prior month, including a record 36.48% jump on May 28 after reporting stronger-than-expected earnings and announcing a $6 billion investment in Amazon Web Services infrastructure. For its fiscal first quarter ended April 30, 2026, Snowflake posted adjusted earnings of 39 cents per share and revenue of $1.39 billion, up 33% year-over-year, beating analyst forecasts. The company also issued upbeat guidance, projecting fiscal second-quarter product revenue between $1.415 billion and $1.420 billion and an adjusted operating margin of 12.5%, both ahead of Wall Street’s expectations, according to CNBC.
Snowflake’s CEO Sridhar Ramaswamy sounded confident, stating, “AI continues to be a powerful tailwind for Snowflake, and Q1 marks a clear inflection point in that journey. With Cortex Code and Snowflake Intelligence, we are extending from the trusted foundation for enterprise data and context to become the control plane for the Agentic Enterprise.” Wall Street analysts echoed the enthusiasm. Barclays raised its price target for Snowflake to $285, and Bank of America boosted its target to $300, calling the results “solid evidence supporting our long-term positive view that Snowflake is a share gainer in a large and expanding AI business intelligence opportunity.”
Despite the buy, Snowflake isn’t among the top 10 holdings of ARK Innovation ETF as of June 18, 2026. Instead, the fund’s largest positions include Tesla (9.50%), Robinhood (4.93%), CRISPR Therapeutics (4.87%), Tempus AI (4.83%), SpaceX (4.71%), AMD (4.51%), Shopify (4.07%), Coinbase (3.85%), Circle Internet Group (3.45%), and Twist Bioscience (3.33%). Alongside Snowflake, ARK added positions in Eli Lilly, SpaceX, and Coinbase Global in June, while trimming exposure to a broad range of other tech names, including Palantir, Roku, AMD, Tesla, Amazon, Shopify, CoreWeave, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing, SoFi Technologies, Figma, and Kratos Defense & Security Solutions.
As ARK Invest continues its high-conviction, high-volatility journey, the firm’s bets on SpaceX and Snowflake show no signs of slowing. Whether Wood’s faith in disruptive innovation will pay off in the long run remains to be seen, but her willingness to make big moves—even in the face of skepticism—keeps the spotlight firmly on ARK’s next act.