Cathie Wood’s ARK Invest Doubles Down on AI Chips with $21M AMD and Broadcom Buy

Cathie Wood’s ARK Invest has signaled a decisive shift in its artificial intelligence investment strategy, moving aggressively into the semiconductor 'second wave' by acquiring approximately $21 million in shares of Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) and Broadcom (AVGO). This move, executed on February 17, 2026, represents a tactical 'buy the dip' maneuver for AMD, which has been positioning its Instinct MI300 series as the primary alternative to NVIDIA’s dominance in the AI accelerator market. By increasing exposure to both AMD and Broadcom, ARK is betting on a more diversified AI hardware ecosystem where custom silicon and high-performance networking become as critical as the GPUs themselves.

The inclusion of Broadcom in this buying spree is particularly telling of ARK’s evolving thesis. While NVIDIA captures the headlines for general-purpose AI training, Broadcom is the undisputed leader in the Application-Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC) market and high-end Ethernet switching. As hyperscalers like Google, Meta, and Amazon increasingly look to develop their own internal AI chips to reduce costs and improve efficiency, Broadcom’s role as a co-designer and networking provider becomes indispensable. This trade suggests that ARK views the 'plumbing' of AI—the networking and custom-built compute—as a high-conviction area for the next phase of the AI cycle.

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To fund these acquisitions, ARK divested $13.3 million from Teradyne (TER) and trimmed its position in Airbnb (ABNB).

To fund these acquisitions, ARK divested $13.3 million from Teradyne (TER) and trimmed its position in Airbnb (ABNB). The sale of Teradyne is a notable departure from ARK’s long-standing focus on the 'physical' manifestation of AI through robotics. Teradyne, a leader in automated testing and collaborative robots (cobots), has been a staple in ARK’s autonomous technology portfolios. However, the decision to rotate capital out of robotics and into pure-play semiconductors suggests a prioritization of computational power over physical automation in the current market environment. It reflects a broader industry trend where the immediate bottleneck for AI progress remains the availability and efficiency of silicon rather than the mechanical deployment of robotic systems.

Furthermore, the continued accumulation of Coinbase (COIN) alongside these semiconductor giants reinforces Wood’s belief in the convergence of AI and blockchain technologies. ARK has frequently argued that AI agents—autonomous software programs—will require decentralized, permissionless payment rails to operate efficiently. By holding Coinbase in the same high-conviction bucket as AMD and Broadcom, ARK is positioning itself for a future where AI infrastructure and crypto-native financial systems are inextricably linked. This 'convergence' thesis remains a cornerstone of ARK’s active management style, even as the firm faces scrutiny over the volatility of its flagship funds.

Looking ahead, investors should monitor whether this rotation into hardware is a temporary tactical adjustment or a long-term structural shift for ARK. If the firm continues to scale back on downstream applications like Airbnb and Teradyne to fund upstream infrastructure, it would indicate a belief that the AI hardware cycle has significantly more room to run before the 'software' or 'application' layer can deliver comparable returns. For the broader market, ARK’s move serves as a high-profile endorsement of the 'non-NVIDIA' AI trade, suggesting that the valuation gap between the market leader and its challengers presents a compelling entry point for growth-oriented capital.