Ark Invest’s Cathie Wood said she would invest in Elon Musk’s Tesla if she were only allowed to pick one stock.
Wood was speaking to investor Steven Bartlett on his podcast “The Diary Of A CEO” when Bartlett asked for her top stock pick. The full interview with Wood aired on YouTube last week.
“Because, think about it. It is a convergence among three of our major platforms. So, robots, energy storage, AI,” Wood said of Tesla.
“And it’s not stopping with robotaxis, there’s a story beyond that with humanoid robots, and our $2,600 number has nothing for humanoid robots. We just thought it’d be an investment, period,” she added.
In June 2024, Wood’s investment management firm, Ark Invest, issued a price target of $2,600 for Tesla. Wood told Bloomberg during an interview in March that she still stands by her target and expects Tesla’s stock to hit $2,600 in five years.
Wood told Bartlett that Musk’s work with Tesla’s Optimus robots would generate productivity gains for the company and create a new source of revenue. Musk said in an interview with CNBC last month that he expects Tesla to make a million Optimus robots every year by 2030.
“We expect to have thousands of Optimus robots working in Tesla factories by the end of this year, beginning this fall. And we expect to scale Optimus up faster than any product, I think, in history to get to millions of units per year as soon as possible,” Musk told CNBC.
Tesla’s stock has oscillated between highs and lows in recent months amid Musk’s entry and exit from politics.
Tesla’s stock hit a peak closing price of $479 in December, after President Donald Trump won the presidential election in November. Musk was a prominent backer and supporter of Trump’s campaign.
Musk’s involvement with the White House DOGE office sparked protests and boycotts against Tesla. In March, Tesla’s stock fell by over 40% from its record highs in mid-December.
This started to alarm investors, who repeatedly told Musk to spend more time on Tesla. Musk said in a Tesla earnings call in May that he would be scaling down his involvement with DOGE to focus on Tesla.
Last week, Musk’s relationship with Trump seemingly broke down after he criticized the president’s “big beautiful bill.” Musk also agreed with an X post that called for Trump’s impeachment, before deleting it.
Trump later threatened to cancel the government’s contracts with Musk’s businesses, saying it would be the “easiest way to save money in our Budget.”
Tesla’s stock fell by 14% on Thursday amid the spat between Musk and Trump. The company’s stock is down nearly 27% year to date.
Wood said in a video posted to Ark Invest’s YouTube channel on Friday that Musk’s quarrel with Trump was an attempt to decouple himself from the Trump administration.
“One of the hypotheses out there is that what has happened was partly — not entirely — orchestrated,” Wood said.
“Clearly, there has been some brand damage to Tesla, which he readily admits, and I think he’s trying to disengage from the government and being associated with one party or the other,” she continued.
Representatives for Wood and Tesla did not respond to requests for comment from Business Insider.
