Ark Invest founder and CEO Cathie Wood, spoke with CNBC on Monday afternoon and reiterated her company’s bullish position on Tesla.
According to Wood, Ark’s confidence has gone up for a number of reasons, detailing Tesla’s market share and also the company’s progress in the autonomous space. She says despite luxury automakers entering the electric vehicle space, Tesla did not lose market share, but rather increased its position.
Wood believes Tesla will be winning the lion’s share of the autonomous taxi network share in the U.S., and thusly, “price targets have gone up considerably.”
Tesla closing down by nearly 6% today. Despite the recent moves lower, @ARKInvest's @CathieDWood says her firm's confidence in the stock has moved higher.$TSLA pic.twitter.com/wTbhptzDo4
— CNBC's Closing Bell (@CNBCClosingBell) March 8, 2021
The Ark Invest founder detailed four areas that she believes Tesla is leading, including battery technology, where she says Tesla has cheaper costs than anyone else.
Wood also said Tesla developing its own AI chip, is akin to taking a page out of Apple’s playbook. With Apple now taking the lion’s share of smartphone profits, Wood believes this may similarly happen to Tesla in the EV space worldwide, but not in China, as the latter “wants its own champion.”
Tesla’s AI chip, according to Ark analysts who examined it, was four years ahead of where NVIDIA was at the time.
Wood also points out Tesla has more data collected than all other companies out there, “by orders of magnitude.” She says the company with the largest pool of data with the highest quality data will win the AI game.
Another advantage Tesla has, according to Wood, are its over-the-air software updates, which allows the company to improve its vehicles and even make them faster. She detailed her own Model 3 which she bought in 2018 and she has never had a problem with the EV, aside from a nail in the wheel.
When asked about @Tesla compared to @amazon losing money for 9 years, @CathieDWood from @ARKInvest describes Tesla as having already gone through this, and now the market leader, similar to @Apple’s achievement. Sorry Cathie, OTA updated can’t fix a flat tire yet 😂 https://t.co/YCzS30qQBx pic.twitter.com/foZF8tHSBa
— Sofiaan Fraval (@Sofiaan) March 8, 2021
“What they’ve done is extraordinary,” said Wood of Tesla. She believes the current EV market is Tesla’s to lose, while also noting the “seeds planted” during the tech/telecom bust from decades ago is only now coming to fruition.
