Cathie Wood talks Tesla, Elon Musk, and pending spot bitcoin ETF

After paring back on Tesla (TSLA) shares in the Ark Innovation ETF (ARKK), the firm has recently started to add to its position again. Ark Invest CEO Cathie Wood tells Yahoo Finance's Julie Hyman that the decisions by General Motors (GM) and Ford (F) to delay some of their EV investments was a "telltale" sign that Tesla is in position to gain market share, calling the automakers' decisions "puzzling." The move comes as Tesla CEO Elon Musk's X platform (formerly Twitter) is suffering from a decline in ad revenue, raising concerns he may have to sell Tesla shares. Wood, however, doesn't seemed to be concerned, claiming that the platform's traffic is rising and that ultimately "advertising will follow traffic." "His [Musk's] reason for buying X we believe is sound and will be successful," Wood adds.
Ark is one of the firms that has applied for a spot bitcoin ETF and is currently awaiting a decision from the US Securities and Exchange Commission. Wood is hopeful that Ark's application will be approved, saying that "After being denied several times by the SEC, without hearing from anyone at the SEC, we and others we know have gotten questions from the SEC, very thoughtful, detailed, technical questions. That's a very positive move." Overall, she says the "outlook is bright" for a spot bitcoin ETF and that she does think approval will come in January. With bitcoin (BTC-USD) prices rising in anticipation of an ETF approval, Wood does think investors will "sell on the news," but that longer term, by the SEC approving these ETFs, institutional investors will be able to invest more in the crypto space, with those inflows helping to prop up the price.
When it comes to the flagship Ark Innovation ETF, Wood says the fund is "diversifying once again. We are adding back some stocks that we sold and... we are looking forward to the IPO window opening again." Wood thinks that with interest rates likely peaking, more companies could go public and that Ark will be "eager investors." So what companies is Wood hoping will go public? She says she would like to see companies like SpaceX, Anthropic, Databricks, and Discord hit the public market.
Key video moments
00:00:25 Wood discusses her Tesla investment and the EV company's autonomous driving future
00:04:05 Is Wood concerned about issues at X impacting Tesla?
00:07:18 Wood explains why "the outlook is bright" for a spot bitcoin ETF
00:09:30 Why bitcoin could sell off if a spot ETF is approved
00:15:15 Why Ark could be "eager investors" in the IPO market
00:17:13 Why Wood wants to see companies like SpaceX, Anthropic, and Databricks go public
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