Cathie Wood, founder and CEO of Ark Invest, believes the next great wave of artificial intelligence will not live in code or the cloud — but in physical machines that look and move like humans.
Speaking to CNBC at the Future Investment Initiative conference in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, Wood said humanoid robots – machines built to mirror human size, shape, and movement – could represent the single largest opportunity in the entire AI landscape.
“I know a lot of people are worried about all the ‘AI hype,’” Wood said. “But as we’re looking to the future, especially with embodied AI, which is all about robotaxis and transforming the world of transportation completely – and then healthcare, which is probably one of the most profound applications of AI, we think that this investment will pay off.”
She added, “I think the chaser is going to be humanoid robots. And I think that is going to be the biggest of all the embodied AI opportunities.”
Wood’s comments come amid a surge of investor and corporate interest in embodied AI — systems that integrate artificial intelligence into physical forms capable of movement and interaction. Major companies including Tesla, Figure AI, and Agility Robotics are racing to build humanoid platforms for manufacturing, logistics, and personal assistance.
Tesla CEO Elon Musk recently said that his company’s Optimus robot could eventually account for 80 percent of Tesla’s total value, underscoring how central embodied AI could become to the broader economy.
Wood’s remarks also reflect her firm’s investment philosophy. The ARK Artificial Intelligence & Robotics UCITS ETF, one of her flagship funds, holds significant stakes in Tesla (9.16%), Palantir (7.02%), and AMD (6.14%) – companies she views as foundational to the AI and robotics ecosystem.
Beyond robotics, Wood emphasized the massive productivity gains that AI could deliver in both enterprise and consumer markets. “It is going to take a while for large corporations to prepare themselves to transform,” she said, noting that companies like Palantir will be critical in restructuring enterprises to fully capture AI’s potential.
In the consumer realm, she said, the adoption curve is moving much faster. “The consumer loves all of this,” Wood added. “We’re all looking forward to our personal assistants doing our shopping for us. I’m really excited about how much my productivity as an individual is going to increase with AI. It already has in terms of research.”
Still, Wood cautioned that the market may experience a short-term “reality check” as AI valuations adjust, even as she maintained that elevated Big Tech prices make sense over a five-year horizon.
For Wood, the long-term picture remains clear: the physical embodiment of AI – from humanoid robots to autonomous systems – will be the next trillion-dollar frontier in technology.
