Cathie Wood Has 13 Big Ideas For 2026: Here's The Ark Invest List And Stocks To Watch

Ark Invest, led by Cathie Wood, issued another "Big Ideas" list on Wednesday, sharing themes for 2026 that investors should watch. This year's list comes after the firm reported a strong 2025, with its ETFs outperforming the S&P 500.

Ark Invest Big Ideas 2026 List

Ark Invest’s highly anticipated 10^th annual Big Ideas list includes:

• The Great Acceleration
• AI Infrastructure
• The AI Consumer Operating System
• AI Productivity
• Bitcoin
• Tokenized Assets
• Decentralized Finance Applications
• Multiomics
• Reusable Rockets
• Robotics
• Distributed Energy
• Autonomous Vehicles
• Autonomous Logistics

The Great Acceleration Central To Several Themes

“The Great Acceleration” is one of the 13 Big Ideas for 2026. But the theme is central to multiple technologies, including AI, public blockchains, robotics, energy storage and multiomics.

"This technological revolution should lead to another step change in real GDP growth," the report says.

Ark Invest says capital investment in disruptive innovation platforms could add 1.9 percentage points to annualized real GDP growth during the current decade, citing items like robotaxis, next gen data centers and AI agents.

Investment Opportunities in Ark ETFs

Ark has several thematic ETFs that cover the Big Ideas for 2026:

• Ark Innovation ETF (BATS:ARKK), the company's flagship, and Ark Next Generation Internet ETF (BATS:ARKW) likely cover most of the Big Ideas for the year.
• The Ark Genomic Revolution ETF (BATS:ARKG) is more specific to covering the Multiomics Big Idea.
• The Ark Space & Defense Innovation ETF (BATS:ARKX) covers reusable rockets theme.
• The Ark Autonomous Technology & Robotics ETF (BATS:ARKQ) has holdings that cover the robotics and autonomous vehicles Big Ideas and some of the other themes.
• The Ark Blockchain & Fintech Innovation ETF (BATS:ARKF) covers the themes of Bitcoin (CRYPTO: BTC), tokenized assets and decentralized finance applications.
• The Ark 21Shares Bitcoin ETF (BATS:ARKB) covers the company's Bitcoin Big Idea and is one of several publicly traded Bitcoin ETFs.

The Big Ideas report says U.S. ETFs and public companies now hold 12% of total Bitcoin supply, with Bitcoin ETF balances up 19.7% in 2025 and public company Bitcoin holdings up 73% in 2025.

The Ark Autonomous Technology & Robotics ETF and Ark Space & Defense Innovation ETF were the top-performing of the six main Ark ETFs, with gains of 49.8% and 49.2%, respectively, in 2025.

Investment Opportunities in Stocks

The Big Ideas report names several publicly traded companies as keys to the 2026 themes, which could be ways for investors to invest alongside Ark Invest.

Coinbase Global (NASDAQ:COIN), Circle Internet Group (NYSE:CRCL) and Robinhood Markets (NASDAQ:HOOD) are all listed as ways to play the tokenized assets Big Idea.

For the Multiomics Big Idea, which highlights that AI-native biology could lead to "profound shifts" in healthcare, Ark Invest provides several stocks as options for the theme. The stocks are Illumina Inc (NASDAQ:ILMN), CRISPR Therapeutics (NASDAQ:CRSP), 10x Genomics (NASDAQ:TXG), Tempus AI (NASDAQ:TEM), Ionis Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:IONS), Quantum Si (NASDAQ:QSI), Nurix Therapeutics (NASDAQ:NRIX), 908 Devices Inc (NASDAQ:MASS) and Ultragenyx Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:RARE).

Waymo, which is owned by Alphabet Inc (NASDAQ:GOOGL), is named as a disruptor in the autonomous vehicles sector and a company that is pressuring Uber and Lyft's market share.

Tesla Inc (NASDAQ:TSLA) is not mentioned often in the Big Ideas report. Still, the company is central to multiple Big Ideas for 2026, including autonomous vehicles, distributed energy, autonomous logistics, and robotics. Tesla is the largest individual stock holding of Ark Invest and the top holding in several of the ETFs, according to data from CathiesArk.

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