Cathie Wood has never shied away from bold calls. Speaking at the Future Investment Initiative in Riyadh, the ARK Invest chief dismissed talk of an artificial intelligence bubble, even as she warned investors to brace for a “reality check” once markets adjust to rising interest rates.
Wood told CNBC that she expects a shift in sentiment over the next year as the conversation moves from falling borrowing costs to increasing ones.
That transition, she said, will likely unsettle markets that have grown accustomed to cheap money.
“We are going to reach a moment in the next year where the conversation will shift from lower interest rates to rising rates,” she said, adding that investors wrongly assume innovation struggles when rates go up.
Her comments come amid renewed anxiety over soaring AI-related valuations.
Wood, however, believes the long-term story remains intact. “I do not believe AI is in a bubble,” she said. “There will be corrections, but if our expectations for embodied AI are right, we’re just at the start of a technological revolution.”