Ark Invest’s Cathie Wood said Wednesday said artificial intelligence is the most important catalyst in every corner of her disruptive innovation strategy. “Many people say data is the new gold as they were talking about the cloud and other movements in technology, I think that’s ever more true now with artificial intelligence,” Wood said on CNBC’s ” Squawk Box .” The widely followed investor said most of the companies in her portfolio have the so-called data advantage, which is the “secret sauce.” For example, ChatGPT, an AI-generated messaging platform, is able to produce convincing content because it’s scraping the entire history of the the internet and answering questions based on on that history, Wood said. “I think the key here is who has the proprietary data.” Wood said. “I think there’s going to be a lot of commoditization in in this industry, in the whole artificial intelligence movement.” In September, Ark Invest launched a new venture capital fund, targeting individual investors with a minimum investment of just $500. The actively managed Ark Venture Fund invests in 70% private firms and 30% public companies focused on technologically enabled innovation. Wood said one of the companies in the venture capital fund is private software firm MosaicML. Meanwhile, she said Exact Sciences , Ark’s flagship Innovation ETF ‘s third biggest holding, is also a leader in AI. “What an advantage it has in terms of data on cancer, thanks to its molecular diagnostic testing franchise, and thanks to its distribution around the world,” Wood said. In its base case, Ark believes Exact Sciences could compound at an average annual rate of 25%, reaching $140 by 2027. The stock traded around $67 apiece on Wednesday.
