We recently published a list of Cathie Wood’s Top 12 AI Stock Picks in 2025. In this article, we are going to take a look at where Tesla, Inc. (NASDAQ:TSLA) stands against other Cathie Wood’s top AI stock picks in 2025.
Since founding ARK Investment Management in 2014, Cathie Wood has earned her place next to legends like Warren Buffet, Ken Fisher, and others. Wood’s investment philosophy centers around identifying and investing in disruptive innovation, which she has put to great use through ARK Innovation ETF.
Historically, Wood has favored tech stocks. She put substantial value into tech companies that promised to disrupt their respective industries through innovation. That hasn’t changed much, and if anything, she seems to be doubling down. Since the beginning of the year, Wood has seemed to smell great opportunities in artificial intelligence (AI). In fact, the latest installment of ARK Invest’s research, ARK’s Big Ideas 2025, puts AI up there in terms of today’s most transformative innovations.
READ ALSO: Paul Singer’s Latest Portfolio: Top 10 Stock Picks and 10 Best Stocks to Buy According to Seth Klarman.
Wood recently commented on the research in a video posted on ARK Invest’s YouTube channel, and her takeaways confirm that she is all in on AI. Right from the start, she believes AI is the story today and in the future. She said:
“AI has been the big story for the past two years, and it’s still the big story. In fact, it is the biggest catalyst to all of the innovation taking place out there uh, it is the reason that the world seems to be speeding up.”
In fact, Wood is convinced that the ongoing AI-driven productivity will put an end to the rolling recession. She said this in her podcast “In the Know,” which outlined a bullish vision of technological innovation driving real GDP growth. While referencing the economic decline that she believes has been ongoing since the Fed began raising rates in 2022, she said, “We’re coming to the end of [the rolling recession]. The bad news is we do have to go through this process.”
Wood and her investment firm have built a reputation for making high-conviction bets on early-stage companies (and industries). Interestingly, one of the key paragraphs in ARK’s Big Ideas 2025 focuses on the risks of investing in innovation. While it points out the risks, it also gives away one of the core beliefs that makes Wood the investor she is: “Risk is how you unlock exponential growth.”
Our Methodology
We reviewed ARK Investment Management’s 13F holdings, as of Q4 2024 and selected the fund’s top 12 AI stock picks. We then ranked the top 12 AI stocks in ascending order based on ARK Investment Management’s stake value. Additionally, we have mentioned the hedge fund sentiment around each stock, as of Q4 2024.
Why are we interested in the stocks that hedge funds pile into? The reason is simple: our research has shown that we can outperform the market by imitating the top stock picks of the best hedge funds. Our quarterly newsletter’s strategy selects 14 small-cap and large-cap stocks every quarter and has returned 373.4% since May 2014, beating its benchmark by 218 percentage points (see more details here).
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Tesla, Inc. (NASDAQ:TSLA)
ARK Investment Management’s Stake Value: $1.33 Billion
Number of Hedge Funds Holding Stakes: 126
Tesla, Inc. (NASDAQ:TSLA) is an auto manufacturer that designs, develops, and sells electric vehicles, energy generation and storage systems. The company is increasingly leveraging artificial intelligence technology to enhance its Autopilot and Full Self Driving capabilities for its self-driving cars. It also employs advanced neural networks to analyze sensor data and make real-time car driving decisions. Likewise, it is Cathie Wood’s biggest holding, offering exposure to the integration of AI in electric autonomous vehicles.
Tesla, Inc. (NASDAQ:TSLA) recorded its first decline in annual deliveries by 1.1% to 1.79 million cars in 2024. Nevertheless, revenue was up 2% year-over-year to $27.5 billion as non-GAAP earnings increased 3% to $0.73 a share. Despite the decline in annual deliveries, Wedbush analyst Dan Ives believes Tesla is well-positioned to benefit from hastened regulatory approval of its AI-powered autonomous driving technology. The analyst believes the company is staring at a $1 trillion opportunity on autonomous driving.
Additionally, Tesla, Inc. (NASDAQ:TSLA) is poised to launch a robotaxi, or automated ride-sharing service, in Austin, affirming its AI developments. It may also begin selling Optimus to other businesses as early as the second half of 2026, as it intends to manufacture 10,000 Optimus humanoid robots for internal usage in 2025.
Overall, TSLA ranks 1st on our list of Cathie Wood’s top AI stock picks in 2025. While we acknowledge the potential of TSLA as an investment, our conviction lies in the belief that AI stocks hold greater promise for delivering higher returns and doing so within a shorter time frame. If you are looking for an AI stock that is more promising than TSLA but that trades at less than 5 times its earnings, check out our report about the cheapest AI stock.
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Disclosure: None. This article is originally published at Insider Monkey.
