Loading summary
Chase for Business Representative
Being a small business owner isn't just a career, it's a calling. Chase for Business knows how much heart and effort go into building something of your own. Manage all your business finances, from banking to payments to credit cards, all in one place with Chase's digital tools. Plus access online resources designed to help your business thrive. Learn more@chase.com business chase for business make more of what's yours. The Chase Mobile app is available for select mobile devices. Message and data rates may apply JP Morgan Chase Bank Naomi Member FDIC Copyright 2026 JPMorgan Chase Co.
The Hartford Representative
When you're running a business, the best days are the ones where priorities stay on track. For midsize and large companies, risk can affect multiple parts of the organization at once, from property and liability to cyber and regulatory challenges. At that level, managing risk becomes an ongoing discipline. At the Hartford, the focus is on helping businesses manage risk before it turns into something more disruptive. And when losses do happen, that work is paired with insurance coverage shaped by years of underwriting, risk engineering and claims experience. Learn more@the Hartford.com riskmitigation policies provided by Hartford Fire Insurance Company and its property and casualty affiliates, Hartford, Connecticut okay, before we get into it, little side note for the IT leaders listening in, I was reading up on a Microsoft Commission survey the other day and learned that teams using Windows 11 Pro PCs report 62% fewer security incidents compared to Windows 10 PCs, including three times fewer firmware attacks. Pretty significant. With security built in, you'll have AI ready it. That sets you up for operational efficiency as well as long term resilience. Upgrade to Windows 11 Pro@Windows means business.com
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.
Chase for Business Representative
If you follow markets, you know the value of long term thinking. You plan, you diversify, you prepare for volatility. But in life, even the best strategies can't prevent every bad day, a fire, a loss, a disruption that demands immediate attention. When that happens, what matters isn't just what you planned. It's who shows up. That's where Cincinnati Insurance comes in. For more than 75 years, they've helped individuals and businesses navigate life's toughest moments with care, expertise and personal attention. Together with independent agents, Cincinnati Insurance focuses on relationships, not transactions. Their approach is grounded in experience, follow through and trust built over time. Bad days happen, and when they do, you deserve an insurance partner who understands risk, respects what you've built, and is ready to help you move forward. The Cincinnati insurance companies, let them make your bad day better. Find an independent agent@cin fin.com Lots of
The Hartford Representative
places can expose you to identity theft. That's why LifeLock monitors hundreds of millions of data points a second for threats to your identity, which is way more than anyone can do on their own. If we find anything suspicious, like new loans or changes to your financial accounts, we alert you right away, all through text, phone, email or the LifeLock app. Save up to 40% your first year. Visit lifelock.com iheart Terms apply. Hey everyone, it's Kal Penn. I'm inviting you to join the best sounding book club you've ever heard with my podcast, Hearsay, The Audible and iHeart Audiobook Club. Every episode, I nerd out with amazing guests and dive into the best new audiobooks available on Audible. It's the book club for your ears. Listen to Earsay, the Audible and iHeart audiobook club on the iHeartradio app or wherever you get your podcasts.
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
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.
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)
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.