ARK Invest's Cathie Wood Bullish On Bitcoin And AI Convergence
CEO of the asset management firm says combining AI and crypto could help companies improve their productivity while cutting costs by nearly half.
Cathie Wood, the founder and CEO of American asset management giant ARK Invests, remains optimistic about the convergence between artificial intelligence and crypto assets.
The millionaire investor and CIO of the company shared her thoughts in an X post on Saturday while promoting her upcoming interview on the Bitcoin Brainstorm podcast.
Wood said the event would transform the operational landscape of many industries. She emphasized that the convergence between AI and Bitcoin could improve overall global economics by cutting down costs and boosting the productivity of employees.
The ARK chief was taken away by the possibilities modern entrepreneurs were creating, with special mention given to Sam Altman, co-founder and CEO of AI software company OpenAI - creators of the infamous ChatGPT and DALL.E programs.
ARK Invest Says AI Programs Could Displace Apple And Google
Wood’s positive outlook on the convergence of crypto and AI can also be linked to a recently published ARK Invest research on artificial intelligence. The report titled ‘Investing In Artificial Intelligence: Where Will Equity Values Surface?’ discusses how machine learning models can become efficient enough to displace online businesses of tech market incumbents.
The report states that artificial intelligence programs like ChatGPT could threaten the market dominance of Apple and Google by disrupting the App Store and Google Play Store in the near future.
ARK Invest claims that product plugins released by OpenAI for its language model enable other chatbots to interact with data and services that are readily available on the internet. For example, these AI programs can search the web for real-time information, make purchases from online stores, and even book flights, hotels, or rental cars at the best prices anywhere in the world.
The asset manager predicts artificial intelligence software to boost the productivity of knowledge workers, such as IT professionals, physicians, architects, engineers, scientists, and academics, roughly fourfold by 2030. Increased productivity could also lower costs for companies by nearly half based on the wages of those who “think for a living”, which currently stands at $32 trillion annually.
AI And Crypto Convergence Could Help Reshape The Traditional Financial System
Cathie Wood also stated that the AI and crypto convergence could transform the traditional financial system by eliminating unnecessary fees that are charged when using cash intermediary services like debit or credit cards for payments.
In a video update, the ARK Invest executive explained that generally there is a tax levy of between 2.5% and 4% for using any instruments other than hard cash in TradeFi (traditional finance). Wood believes that the coming together of cryptocurrency and artificial intelligence would provide a unique opportunity to eliminate all taxes and “disintermediate” the intermediaries that are exploiting users.
ARK Invest Has A Great Track Record Of Investing In Emerging Technologies
ARK Invest has a successful portfolio of investments in tech stocks that are focused on AI.
The ARK Disruptive Innovation ETF, which is an exchange-traded product (ETP) dedicated to artificial intelligence and other innovative technologies, has outperformed the Nasdaq 100 Index by returning a second-quarter profit of 41.2%.
Additionally, the company also has investments in the crypto and digital asset sector, with substantial holdings in trading platforms such as Coinbase and Robinhood.
The company led by a pro-crypto CEO is currently awaiting approval from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) for its spot Bitcoin ETF. Once accepted by the regulator, the ARK 21 Shares ETF will become one of the first Bitcoin-based investment products to be traded in U.S. markets.
Wall Street giants including BlackRock and Fidelity have also applied for their own versions of spot Bitcoin ETFs. The move comes following growing demand from traditional investors to gain exposure to Bitcoin and the crypto market.
At the time of writing, Bitcoin (BTC), the apex cryptocurrency, is trading at $25,724 - down over 6% since last week. Meanwhile, companies like Nvidia, which builds “Superchips” that help power data-intensive artificial intelligence-based programs, continue to surge as the tech industry is focused on implementing machine learning models on their upcoming products and services.