Cathie Wood Talks Elon Musk at Milken

Summary

Bloomberg Businessweek Podcast Summary

Episode: Cathie Wood Talks Elon Musk at Milken
Date: May 7, 2026
Hosts: Carol Massar, Joe Matthew (Bloomberg)
Guest: Cathie Wood, CEO of Ark Invest
Location: Milken Institute Global Conference

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Episode Overview

This episode features a wide-ranging conversation with Cathie Wood, CEO and founder of Ark Invest, at the Milken Institute Global Conference. The discussion focuses on Elon Musk’s evolving corporate strategy—especially around SpaceX, Tesla, and the emerging convergence of technologies—as well as broader trends in artificial intelligence, data centers (including the prospect of orbital data centers), chip industry competition, regulatory shifts in AI, and the future of stablecoins and crypto in the United States.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Elon Musk and the Convergence of Technologies

• Musk’s Multi-company Strategy:
  • Cathie Wood explains how Musk’s companies—SpaceX, Tesla, and his ventures into chip manufacturing—are all part of a larger trend toward vertical integration.
  • Wood highlights that Musk himself only recently acknowledged how much his companies are converging, noting that such integration lets Elon move fast and break new ground, especially as he advances new supply chains that haven’t previously existed.
  • “I think my companies are converging more than even I understood.” (Paraphrased from Elon Musk, per Wood at 03:03)
• Vertical Integration as a Key to Innovation:
  • Musk is "moving into incredible vertical integration as he moves data centers into space" (Cathie Wood, 03:03).
  • The approach allows for more control and efficiency, especially where industries (like space and AI hardware) lack established supply chains.

2. Tesla, Robotaxis, and the Race to Autonomy

• Robotaxis & Cost Revolution:
  • Wood deep dives into Tesla’s focus on autonomy and transportation as a platform, rather than just car manufacturing.
  • She predicts Tesla’s vertical integration will drive robotaxi per-mile costs down dramatically, possibly as low as $0.25 (from the current ~$3), which would be half that of Waymo’s cost structure by 2030 (05:33).
    • “If our analysis is correct, those costs as robotaxis scale are going to drop to 25 cents per mile…and Waymo’s cost structure…in 2030 will be 50% higher than Tesla’s…” (Cathie Wood, 05:33)
• Broader Impact:
  • The cost collapse in transportation could fundamentally reshape how people live and work (implied through tone and discussion).

3. SpaceX IPO and the Space Economy

• Investor Fervor for SpaceX:
  • Enormous demand expected for the SpaceX IPO, with Wood forecasting an initial imbalance due to limited supply, followed by volatility and a likely long-term trajectory similar to Tesla’s (07:11–08:08).
    • “Just think about how SpaceX has reawakened the dream of space exploration. This has captured the imagination not just of investors, but really everyone.” (Cathie Wood, 07:11)
• Orbital Data Centers as a Game Changer:
  • Wood is particularly bullish on SpaceX’s potential in building orbital data centers, suggesting revenue could become “orders of magnitude higher” for Tesla and SpaceX, hinting at 10–20x growth (08:08).
    • “Our preliminary work suggests that that part of the business could take…revenue generation…orders of magnitude higher, 10, 20 times higher.” (Cathie Wood, 08:08)
  • She emphasizes these developments are real and not reminiscent of the hyped, ungrounded tech ambitions of the 1999 bubble (09:13–09:45).

4. The Future of Data Centers: Earth vs. Orbit

• No Bubble in Data Centers:
  • Despite a land rush into terrestrial data centers, Wood argues the world will need both Earth-based and orbital data facilities to meet demand (09:13–10:05).
    • “We think, and this is the important judgment call. Is this hype? Is this 1999? I can tell you unequivocally it is not.” (Cathie Wood, 09:13)

5. Chip Industry Evolution: CPUs vs. GPUs

• Rivalry Heats Up:
  • With AMD’s strong quarter, the conversation shifts to the importance of CPUs as the AI ecosystem matures. Wood credits Lisa Su at AMD for noting a coming shift to a 1:1 CPU/GPU ratio for AI workloads (10:40).
    • “Lisa [Su, AMD CEO] thinks it’s going to go one to one…that has been the sleeper.” (Cathie Wood, 10:40)
  • Wood underscores a “back to the future” moment as companies like Intel are revitalized due to these AI infrastructure demands.
  • “I think we need it all. All hands on deck.” (Cathie Wood, 12:03)

6. AI Regulation and Geopolitical Implications

• Governmental Vetting of AI
  • Hosts ask about the White House seeking early access to AI models from tech giants. Wood views this as pragmatically focused on national security, not heavy regulation, and sees it as tightening up cyber vulnerabilities (12:04–12:50).
    • “We might be talking more about national security…they’re probably trying to tighten up a lot of what we do out there and make sure that our industries are safe.” (Cathie Wood, 12:15)
• Open Source vs. Closed Models:
  • Wood notes that while tech companies may claim their AI is “too powerful to release,” it’s also strategic marketing, and competition—both domestic and from China—is driving rapid progress (12:57).
    • “This is great marketing. It’s true that [AI] is very powerful, but it’s also great marketing…” (Cathie Wood, 12:57)

7. Stablecoins, Crypto Policy, and the US Advantage

• Crypto Regulation and Opportunity:
  • Wood emphasizes the pivotal nature of the current political moment for US crypto innovation.
  • She points to deregulation, tax cuts, and a business-friendly administration fueling the US as a potential future leader in digital assets and stablecoins under initiatives like the Genius Act (13:51–14:52).
  • “This is creating a new financial world order…We think the return on invested capital is going to go up in the US generally. And we think that the crypto revolution, we were at risk of losing it…Yes, we do think the US has a shot.” (Cathie Wood, 13:52–14:53)

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On Technology Convergence:
  “The seeds that were planted in the 20 years that ended in the bubble, they’ve been germinating for 20, 25 years and now they’re flourishing…fifteen different technologies evolving and they’re all converging.” (Cathie Wood, 03:03)

• On Tesla’s Transformation:
  “Tesla’s vertically integrated and has created the platform upon which others will build their companies.” (Cathie Wood, 05:33)

• On Musk’s Timing:
  “…he always sets the time frame much sooner than most people expect. But it’s to get his employees and the supply chain focused, because when he moves, he moves fast.” (Cathie Wood, 04:16)

• On Opportunity in Crypto:
  “We think that the crypto revolution, we were at risk of losing it. And yes, we do think the US has a shot.” (Cathie Wood, 13:52–14:53)

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Key Timestamps

• 03:03: Cathie Wood on the convergence of Musk’s companies and vertical integration.
• 05:33: Discussion of Tesla’s pioneering in vertical integration and robotaxi economics.
• 07:11: SpaceX IPO demand and its broader cultural impact.
• 08:08: The transformative potential of orbital data centers for SpaceX and Tesla.
• 09:13: Debate on whether data center expansion (Earth/space) is a bubble.
• 10:40: The future shape of the AI chip market—AMD’s Lisa Su on CPUs vs. GPUs.
• 12:04: The White House’s early access to AI models: security vs. regulation.
• 13:51: Stablecoins, US crypto policy, and reasons for optimism.

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Summary Takeaways

Cathie Wood forecasts a period of rapid convergence across multiple next-gen technologies, driven by vertically integrated innovators like Elon Musk. She projects dramatic changes in transportation and technology costs, bold new opportunities for both terrestrial and orbital infrastructure, and a robust, competitive environment in AI and chips. The episode closes with optimism for the US regaining momentum in crypto and digital assets amid regulatory tailwinds.

This episode is essential listening for anyone interested in how visionary leaders and investors are interpreting—and shaping—the emergent future of technology, finance, and global industry.

Transcript

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[Cathie Wood]

Bloomberg Audio Studios podcasts radio news.

[The Hartford Representative]

You're listening to Bloomberg Businessweek with Carol Massar and Tim Stanvak on Bloomberg Radio.

[Bloomberg Host]

We welcome everybody on Bloomberg Radio, Bloomberg TV across Bloomberg platforms. Yes indeed. Carol Massar, Joe Matthew Here at the Milken Institute Global Conference, we have a special guest and I feel like reading in this morning the headlines were made. It's like they knew Kathy was going to join us. Cathie Wood, CEO, CIO and of course the founder of Ark Invest. It's so nice to talk with you again. Thanks.

[Cathie Wood]

Delighted to be here. You gave me my big break in 2015. I'll never forget that.

[Bloomberg Host]

Well, it's. Well, it's so funny because I want to talk Elon, because you kind of put him for me on the radar and I just feel like it was a time when so many people questioned what he was up to. Now everybody is so excited about the SpaceX IPO, we see increasingly how he's kind of melding his universe together. Tell us about kind of that bet. And even today we have that he's building a chip factory, at least 55 billion in investment, maybe as much as almost 120. And he's doing this chip factory, Space X with Tesla. How are you looking at Elon right now, what his next era is?

[Cathie Wood]

So this is why I founded Ark Invest. We knew that the seeds that were planted in the 20 years that ended in the bubble, they've been germinating for 20, 25 years and now they're flourishing. And what we're seeing is 15 different technologies evolving and they're all converging. And Elon, about six months ago, and we've been using the word convergence for a long time, he said, you know what? I think my companies are converging more than even I understood. And so we're seeing, of course, Space X AI rumors about Tesla. And really he believes that in the new world, or to create the new world, a company has to be vertically integrated. And so that's what's happening here. He is moving into incredible vertical integration as he, as he moves data centers into space.

[Bloomberg Host]

Is it all about our Bloomberg intelligence? George Ferguson covers space, covers defense, but he said it's all about Elon controlling the supply chain. Kathy But I do feel like globally we're seeing countries, companies really thinking about their supply chain. Is that part of his strategy?

[Cathie Wood]

And absolutely, absolutely. And also when a company is breaking new ground, literally in this case, and really inventing something, the supply chain doesn't exist very often or not all parts of it exist. And I think also as he's discussing, you know, where he's going and how he's going to do it, he is getting the supply chain ready. You know, he always says sets the time frame, you know, much sooner than most people expect. But it's to get his employees and the supply chain focused because when he moves, he moves fast.

[Bloomberg Co-host or Interviewer]

You've really helped to define people's perception of Elon Musk and the company Tesla largely as one that is not about making cars, but one that's about autonomy and robotics. When you walk out the Hilton here, different than where I live in Washington D.C. driverless Waymos are picking people up and driving away with them all day long. The mainstreaming of autonomous vehicles is just about here. I'd like to know if you see that actually fulfilling itself in the next year and if this is a zero sum game or you're going to Have Uber, Waymo, Tesla, all involved.

[Cathie Wood]

Okay, this is where vertical integration comes back into the conversation. In the robotaxi world, Tesla's vertically integrated and has created the platform upon which others will build their companies. So I credit our team. So Tasha, Daniel, Brett Winton, we have been focused on this from day one, 2014 when I founded Ark. And yes, slowly, slowly, then all at once. So vertical integration for Tesla means it will have the lowest cost structure by far. Now it's going to uber's umbrella here, $3 plus per mile. But if our analysis is correct, those costs as robotaxis scale are going to drop to 25 cents per mile. Think about it. The cost of transportation is going to collapse here and no one Waymo's cost structure according to our estimates in 2030 will be 50% higher than Tesla's because they're dependent on other auto manufacturers and others in the supply chain that Tesla is not.

[Bloomberg Host]

How are you thinking about the Space X ipo, Cathie? Do you anticipate? There's so much enthusiasm going into it, massive size, massive interest. But do you think there'll be a drop off initially after, you know, once it makes its public debut and then ultimately kind of play out like Tesla did, that eventually it goes up again. Like how do you see the trajectory?

[Cathie Wood]

Right, so this is only at least what we know so far, $75 billion. There is so much demand out there we have in our venture fund. So Ark Vic Space X is the largest position and because we're direct to consumer when it comes to venture, although the fund has scaled north of 850 million, investors had to look for us. And how did they find us? They were looking for Space X. So the demand is voracious out there. Only 75 billion. Yes, it's a big IPO. But just think about how, how Space X has reawakened the dream of space exploration. This has captured the imagination not just of investors, but really everyone.

[Bloomberg Host]

So does that mean you don't think it'll, you think the enthusiasm will continue or do you think there will be some settling?

[Cathie Wood]

I think there'll be supply demand imbalance in the beginning. You'll see that pop. It will be volatile. I would imag but we hope to to serve in terms of providing our research. We've already got a Space X model out there on our site ark-invest.com we have not added data centers, orbital data centers in. However, our preliminary work suggests that that part of the business could take relative to our existing model, could take Tesla from a revenue Generation point of view, orders of magnitude higher, 10, 20 times higher.

[Bloomberg Host]

I'm so glad you went there. Data centers in space and I mentioned before we got going, it came up on a real estate panel where so many of the real estate investors even like related companies has switched their focus to data centers. But we brought up data centers in space. What does that mean though then for all of the data center build out and money that is happening here on Earth, does that mean a lot of that goes away? There's a little bit of a bubble. Like how do we reconcile that?

[Cathie Wood]

We think, and this is the important judgment call. Is this hype? Is this 1999? I can tell you unequivocally it is not. As I mentioned, the seeds were planted then. Now we're ready and we think this technology revolution is going to dwarf the industrial revolution by far. So I think that we'll need the orbital data centers. And of course Elon is informed by his experience in Memphis, Tennessee and now Mississippi. Memphis became not in my backyard. You're increasing my electricity prices and you're ruining our land. So he's basically saying I'm not going to have to worry about not in my backyard. I.

[Bloomberg Host]

But does it make a bubble of the stuff?

[Cathie Wood]

I don't think so. I don't think so. We think we're going, we need all of this. Yep.

[Bloomberg Host]

Sorry. I know I'm dominating. I didn't mean to.

[Bloomberg Co-host or Interviewer]

I mean you guys should walk away with this. Go, go ask about something that took place today. You woke up and saw your third largest holding.

[Cathie Wood]

Yes.

[Bloomberg Co-host or Interviewer]

Just go through the roof in amd another blow the doors off quarter. And it's really creating this question now about whether we should be paying a lot more attention. The market is to CPUs after GPUs went crazy. We're looking at people take money out of Nvidia now and chase stocks like amd. Do we need both or is that where you're looking?

[Cathie Wood]

We think we need both. I do think there is more competition. We want it, we need it. But it was interesting. Sarah Fryer at OpenAI. I'm going to give her a shout out because I heard her speak and she, she was saying, you know, people are chasing GPUs. They're going to be really shocked at how agentic I activate CPUs and inference generally activate CPUs. Yesterday Lisa Su provided a stat we had never heard before. Right now for every, for every CPU there are four to five GPUs. When it comes to enabling AI, Lisa thinks it's going to go one to one. Well in the future I think that has been the sleeper and you see intel has taken off. In fact we're seeing a lot of stocks that were, you know, they were very big in the bubble. And I just said to our team today, I said what's going on? We're going back to the future. You know, intel resurrecting that, Right? Yes. And Flex Tronics is now called Flex Boom. So I think we need it all.

[Bloomberg Co-host or Interviewer]

Not to mention data storage which has been one of the most remarkable, remarkable examples of, of, of a shortage creating a monster rally. So you need these old fashioned chips.

[Cathie Wood]

Yes.

[Bloomberg Co-host or Interviewer]

To get to this new fashion.

[Cathie Wood]

All hands on deck.

[Bloomberg Host]

We want to ask you about a story that came out Google Microsoft to give us agency early access to AI models. So basically the White House vetting AI models this good or bad and knowing

[Cathie Wood]

this administration and David Sachs are our eyes are. I don't think we're talking about heavy regulation here. We might be talking more about national security. National security. We heard this with Methos. You know, software that you know has not has been in place for 60 years and never been penetrated. I can find these vulnerabilities. So they're probably trying to tighten up a lot of what we do out there and make sure that our industry industries are safe.

[Bloomberg Co-host or Interviewer]

Doesn't that bring a political implication though to what may or may not be available to people if, if the White House is choosing which platform we ought to use now?

[Cathie Wood]

You know what's interesting and this is taking a leaf from Open Air in its early days, Chat GPT are saying we don't think we can release this. This is too powerful. This is great marketing. It's true that it's very powerful, but it's also great marketing. A lot of the people at Anthropic came from Open Air. So while they're blazing trails, no question about it, and they're leapfrogging one another which is great. Competition is great for us here. Including competition from China. I think, I think that you know we're, we're on our way.

[Bloomberg Host]

I want to ask you about stablecoins tether and their potential. Do you think it has a chance to become big in the US under the Genius Act? And you've also invested in Circle. Are you looking at other stablecoin related players beyond that Crypto bill, tell me there's a lot going on right now.

[Cathie Wood]

Is a lot going on.

[Bloomberg Host]

There's a big meeting at Mar a Lago. Like I know a lot of crypto Folks like, tell us.

[Cathie Wood]

Well, and you know, in the last election, I do think the crypto community was very, was part of the swing factor because they knew deregulation would take place under this administration. That's absolutely true. So yes, we're seeing the deregulation. You know, this is, this is creating a new financial world order. Many people think the dollar should be going down because of our deficit and debt and all of that. And what we're seeing here in the United States is deregulation, tax cuts and a very business friendly, very business friendly administration. We think the return on invested capital is going to go up in the US Generally. And we think that the crypto revolution, we were at risk of losing it. Yeah. And yes, we do think us has a shot.

[Bloomberg Host]

You do?

[Cathie Wood]

Yes.

[Bloomberg Host]

All right. I'm not going to have like a million more questions to an hour. Kathy, thank you so much.

[Cathie Wood]

Really appreciate it. Thank you really, so much.

[Bloomberg Host]

Really appreciate it. Cathie Wood, of course, she's the CEO, CIO and of course founder of Ark Invest, someone. Like I said, it was 10 years ago that we first started talking about Elon Musk. So really tremendous to catch up with her again.

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