The celebrity money desk Who's really writing the cheques
●SERENA WILLIAMS16 UNICORNS BACKED●REESE WITHERSPOON$900M MEDIA EXIT●OPRAH WINFREY$43M WEIGHT WATCHERS●GWYNETH PALTROW$250M GOOP VALUATION●RIHANNA$1B SAVAGE X FENTY●JESSICA ALBAHONEST CO. · NASDAQ IPO●HALLE BERRYBACKS WOMEN'S HEALTH●BEYONCÉLEMON PERFECT BACKER●JENNIFER LOPEZHIMS & HERS BACKER●KIM KARDASHIANSKKY PARTNERS PE FUND●SELENA GOMEZGOPUFF STRATEGIC PARTNER●PRIYANKA CHOPRABUMBLE EARLY BACKER●DEEPIKA PADUKONEKA ENTERPRISES INVESTOR●SHAKIRAISIMA HAIRCARE FOUNDER●NATALIE PORTMANANGEL CITY CO-FOUNDER●KERRY WASHINGTONANGEL INVESTOR●MINDY KALINGANGEL INVESTOR●EVA LONGORIACASA DEL SOL CO-FOUNDER●CAMERON DIAZAVALINE CO-FOUNDER●DREW BARRYMOREFLOWER BEAUTY FOUNDER●KATE HUDSONFABLETICS CO-FOUNDER●BLAKE LIVELYBETTY BUZZ FOUNDER●VENUS WILLIAMSELEVEN FOUNDER●NAOMI OSAKAHANA KUMA CO-FOUNDER●MARIA SHARAPOVAPROLIFIC WELLNESS ANGEL●TYRA BANKSFIERCE CAPITAL FOUNDER●KARLIE KLOSSBEDFORD MEDIA FOUNDER●ISSA RAETOPICALS & HILLTOP BACKER●KATY PERRYDE SOI CO-FOUNDER●KYLIE JENNER$1.2B KYLIE COSMETICS●BETHENNY FRANKELSKINNYGIRL FOUNDER●MELINDA FRENCH GATESPIVOTAL VENTURES●CATHIE WOODARK INVEST CEO●MELLODY HOBSONARIEL INVESTMENTS CO-CEO●KIRSTEN GREENFORERUNNER VENTURES●SALLIE KRAWCHECKELLEVEST CEO●MARY MEEKERBOND CAPITAL FOUNDER●ARLAN HAMILTONBACKSTAGE CAPITAL●BARBARA CORCORANSHARK TANK INVESTOR●SHERYL SANDBERGEX-META COO●SARA BLAKELYFOUNDER OF SPANX●KATHY XUCAPITAL TODAY FOUNDER●JENNY LEEGRANITE ASIA PARTNER●SOLINA CHAUHORIZONS VENTURES●KIRAN MAZUMDAR-SHAWBIOCON FOUNDER●FALGUNI NAYARNYKAA FOUNDER●MARÍA ASUNCIÓN ARAMBURUZABALATRESALIA CAPITAL●OLIVIA WILDE$500K–$2M CHEQUES●EMMA WATSON2 DOCUMENTED DEALS●PARIS HILTON20+ STARTUP BETS●THE FOSTER SISTERSBUMBLE AND MIRROR EARLY●GRACE BEVERLEY£6.2M IN TALA'S FIRST YEAR●AILEEN LEECOINED "UNICORN"●ANN MIURA-KOSEED INVESTOR IN LYFT●EMMA GREDE8% OF SKIMS●NAMITA THAPAR100+ COMPANIES BACKED●SERENA WILLIAMS16 UNICORNS BACKED●REESE WITHERSPOON$900M MEDIA EXIT●OPRAH WINFREY$43M WEIGHT WATCHERS●GWYNETH PALTROW$250M GOOP VALUATION●RIHANNA$1B SAVAGE X FENTY●JESSICA ALBAHONEST CO. · NASDAQ IPO●HALLE BERRYBACKS WOMEN'S HEALTH●BEYONCÉLEMON PERFECT BACKER●JENNIFER LOPEZHIMS & HERS BACKER●KIM KARDASHIANSKKY PARTNERS PE FUND●SELENA GOMEZGOPUFF STRATEGIC PARTNER●PRIYANKA CHOPRABUMBLE EARLY BACKER●DEEPIKA PADUKONEKA ENTERPRISES INVESTOR●SHAKIRAISIMA HAIRCARE FOUNDER●NATALIE PORTMANANGEL CITY CO-FOUNDER●KERRY WASHINGTONANGEL INVESTOR●MINDY KALINGANGEL INVESTOR●EVA LONGORIACASA DEL SOL CO-FOUNDER●CAMERON DIAZAVALINE CO-FOUNDER●DREW BARRYMOREFLOWER BEAUTY FOUNDER●KATE HUDSONFABLETICS CO-FOUNDER●BLAKE LIVELYBETTY BUZZ FOUNDER●VENUS WILLIAMSELEVEN FOUNDER●NAOMI OSAKAHANA KUMA CO-FOUNDER●MARIA SHARAPOVAPROLIFIC WELLNESS ANGEL●TYRA BANKSFIERCE CAPITAL FOUNDER●KARLIE KLOSSBEDFORD MEDIA FOUNDER●ISSA RAETOPICALS & HILLTOP BACKER●KATY PERRYDE SOI CO-FOUNDER●KYLIE JENNER$1.2B KYLIE COSMETICS●BETHENNY FRANKELSKINNYGIRL FOUNDER●MELINDA FRENCH GATESPIVOTAL VENTURES●CATHIE WOODARK INVEST CEO●MELLODY HOBSONARIEL INVESTMENTS CO-CEO●KIRSTEN GREENFORERUNNER VENTURES●SALLIE KRAWCHECKELLEVEST CEO●MARY MEEKERBOND CAPITAL FOUNDER●ARLAN HAMILTONBACKSTAGE CAPITAL●BARBARA CORCORANSHARK TANK INVESTOR●SHERYL SANDBERGEX-META COO●SARA BLAKELYFOUNDER OF SPANX●KATHY XUCAPITAL TODAY FOUNDER●JENNY LEEGRANITE ASIA PARTNER●SOLINA CHAUHORIZONS VENTURES●KIRAN MAZUMDAR-SHAWBIOCON FOUNDER●FALGUNI NAYARNYKAA FOUNDER●MARÍA ASUNCIÓN ARAMBURUZABALATRESALIA CAPITAL●OLIVIA WILDE$500K–$2M CHEQUES●EMMA WATSON2 DOCUMENTED DEALS●PARIS HILTON20+ STARTUP BETS●THE FOSTER SISTERSBUMBLE AND MIRROR EARLY●GRACE BEVERLEY£6.2M IN TALA'S FIRST YEAR●AILEEN LEECOINED "UNICORN"●ANN MIURA-KOSEED INVESTOR IN LYFT●EMMA GREDE8% OF SKIMS●NAMITA THAPAR100+ COMPANIES BACKED
Investing
Cathie Wood
Founder, CEO and CIO of ARK Invest (2014), which runs actively managed high-conviction ETFs (flagship ARKK) concentrated in disruptive innovation — EVs, AI, genomics, fintech and crypto. She publishes her research openly and buys aggressively into volatility.
$2,000 by 2027 (bull $2,500 / bear $1,400); a $4,000 pre-split ($800 split-adjusted) call back in 2018Tesla price target (ARK)
Bull case raised to $1.5M in 2024, then lowered toward $1.2M in 2025; base case ~$683KBitcoin 2030 target (ARK)
~$282M, about 4.73% (5th-largest holding), plus a stake in ARK's Venture FundSpaceX weighting in ARKK
Watch
Cathie Wood in her own words
Ark's Cathie Wood Discusses Crypto, Inflation & IPOs · via Bloomberg Television
The thesis
How Cathie Wood invests
Cathie Wood founded ARK Invest in 2014 to bet exclusively on what she calls disruptive innovation: companies she expects to reshape the economy across artificial intelligence, robotics, genomic sequencing, energy storage and blockchain. Her funds run concentrated, high-conviction positions with a stated five-year horizon and openly embrace volatility, which produced a 152.5% gain for the flagship ARK Innovation ETF (ARKK) in 2020 and steep losses in the years that followed as the same growth stocks unwound. Because ARK runs actively managed ETFs, its holdings are disclosed daily and traded often, so her portfolio is a moving basket rather than a fixed set of stakes. Her best-known calls, an early outsized price target on Tesla and long-running Bitcoin forecasts in the hundreds of thousands of dollars, capture both the ambition and the risk of the approach.
It's the first global private—meaning no government oversight—digital, rules-based monetary system in the history of the world.
Stablecoins are usurping part of the role that we thought Bitcoin would play. Given what's happening with stablecoins, we could take maybe $300,000 off that bullish case.
Electric-vehicle and energy company that ARK frames primarily as an AI and autonomy (robotaxi) play.
When
ARK's signature bet since its 2014 launch; Wood issued a $4,000 target (split-adjusted ~$800) in February 2018, when shares traded near $346 and Wall Street's highest target was about $500.
Why
Wood calls Tesla the biggest AI play out there, expecting a robotaxi fleet built on Full Self-Driving to drive most of its value; ARK set a $2,000-by-2027 expected value with a $2,500 bull and $1,400 bear case.
Status
Long ARK's largest and most iconic position and still a top ARKK holding, but as an actively managed ETF stake it is disclosed daily and ARK adds to or trims it frequently.
Elon Musk's private rocket-launch and satellite-internet (Starlink) company.
When
ARK began buying in late 2023 and made it the largest holding of its roughly $1B ARK Venture Fund (ARKVX); also held publicly inside ARKK.
Why
Gives ARK and retail investors rare pre-IPO exposure to reusable launch and satellite broadband, technologies ARK views as disruptive platforms.
Status
A rare private bet for ARK. The ARKK slice (~$282M, ~4.73%) is a public ETF holding that ARK adjusts frequently, while the ARKVX venture stake is illiquid until any IPO.
A long-standing ARK crypto position held across ARKK, ARKW and ARKF since Coinbase's 2021 direct listing.
Why
Core to ARK's thesis that crypto is a new asset class, offering a regulated on-ramp to Bitcoin and digital assets.
Status
A top-seven ARKK holding at roughly 4%. ARK repeatedly buys the dips and trims the rallies, so it is a public ETF position disclosed daily, not a static stake.
A multi-year ARK holding with large purchases through 2025, including about $16.2M on August 19, 2025 during a three-day buying streak.
Why
A crypto-adjacent fintech giving younger investors access to trading and digital assets, one of ARK's most consistent crypto-adjacent bets.
Status
Among ARK's larger fintech positions but heavily traded, with ARK a net seller across much of the stock's run. A public ETF holding that changes frequently.
Data-analytics and AI software company serving governments and large enterprises.
When
First bought in 2020, then repeatedly added and trimmed; ARK held roughly 3.11 million shares worth about $493M as a top-ten position.
Why
An AI-software beneficiary ARK has kept as a sizable long-term stake despite ongoing profit-taking.
Status
A frequently rebalanced holding. ARK trimmed roughly $11.4M in one recent sale after a record rally. A public ETF position it sizes up and down, not a fixed stake.
Bitcoin (via ARKB spot ETF and ARK's price thesis)
The largest cryptocurrency; ARK offers direct exposure through its spot Bitcoin ETF, and Bitcoin sits at the center of ARK's blockchain thesis.
When
Wood has been a vocal Bitcoin bull for years; ARK moved into spot Bitcoin exposure after the SEC approved spot Bitcoin ETFs in January 2024.
Why
Wood calls Bitcoin the first global, private, digital, rules-based monetary system, treating it as digital gold and a legitimate institutional allocation.
Status
A core long-term thesis, but the number moves: ARK raised its 2030 bull case to $1.5M in 2024, then lowered it toward $1.2M in 2025 as stablecoins took share. Exposure via a spot Bitcoin ETF is a public, disclosed holding.
A signature pandemic-era ARK holding, built up heavily through 2020 and 2021.
Why
A bet on connected-TV advertising and cord-cutting as a disruptive media platform.
Status
Once a top ARKK holding, since bought and sold heavily over the years and at times exited entirely, a clear example of how much these public ETF positions turn over.
A major ARK holding through the pandemic, at one point among ARKK's largest positions.
Why
A bet on telehealth as the future of care delivery, tied to ARK's genomics and health-tech theme.
Status
ARK sold down its stake sharply as the stock crashed after 2021, a public ETF holding that went from flagship position to a much smaller or exited one.
Photo: Caroline Wood — Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0
What the record doesn't say
Read this with the gaps in mind.
ARK trades publicly-disclosed ETF positions that change frequently; ARKK has been highly volatile (big 2020 gain then steep drawdowns), and her long-range targets are forecasts, not realised returns.
Cathie Wood has backed Tesla (TSLA), SpaceX (private), Coinbase (COIN), Robinhood (HOOD), and 8 more. Each one is listed on this page with what the company does and a link to named reporting.
How much has Cathie Wood invested?
Cheque sizes are almost never disclosed, and Cathie Wood's are mostly private. Where a round size, stake or valuation has been reported we cite the source; otherwise we flag it as undisclosed rather than guess.
How does Cathie Wood invest?
Cathie Wood founded ARK Invest in 2014 to bet exclusively on what she calls disruptive innovation: companies she expects to reshape the economy across artificial intelligence, robotics, genomic sequencing, energy storage and blockchain.
ARK Invest CEO