Cathie Wood buys $18 million of beaten-down AI stock

CoreWeave dropped 5.83% on April 28 after reports surfaced that OpenAI had missed its internal revenue and user growth targets. For most investors, that was a reason to pause. For Cathie Wood, it was a reason to buy.

Wood’s ARK Invest ETFs moved quickly, and the size of the purchase tells you exactly how much conviction is behind it.

What ARK bought and why the timing matters

ARK Invest purchased 162,306 shares of CoreWeave across its ARKK and ARKW ETFs on April 28, with the stock closing at $105.53, for a total transaction of approximately $18.18 million, according to Investing.com.

The purchase came on a down day for CoreWeave, which dropped after news that OpenAI, one of its largest customers, had fallen short of internal growth targets. Wood’s move suggests she views the selloff as disconnected from CoreWeave’s underlying business strength rather than a signal to reduce exposure, according to TipRanks.

The April 28 buy is part of a consistent pattern. ARK has now invested at least $80 million into CoreWeave year to date across multiple purchases, according to Stocktwits. Each time CoreWeave has pulled back, Wood has added.

This is not a first look at the stock. It is a repeated, deliberate build.

What CoreWeave actually does and why it matters

CoreWeave is a GPU-optimized cloud infrastructure company built specifically for AI workloads. It entered into a five-year partnership with OpenAI around the time of its IPO, with a deal worth as much as $11.9 billion in revenue over that period, according to Motley Fool. OpenAI is also an investor in CoreWeave.

Beyond OpenAI, CoreWeave works with nine of the 10 largest AI platforms in the world, including Google, Microsoft, Meta, and Anthropic, Motley Fool noted. That breadth of customer relationships is one of the key reasons Wood has been willing to keep adding to the position even as the stock has stayed volatile.

CoreWeave’s revenue has more than doubled in each of its first four quarters since going public. Analysts expect revenue to nearly double again when the company reports its next quarterly results, Motley Fool confirmed. That is the growth trajectory that keeps Wood committed to the name despite the noise.

The OpenAI risk and why Wood appears to be looking past it

The selloff on April 28 was triggered by reports that OpenAI missed its internal revenue and user growth targets. Since OpenAI is CoreWeave’s largest customer under the $11.9 billion multi-year deal, any slowdown in OpenAI’s growth could reduce the compute capacity it draws from CoreWeave’s infrastructure.

CoreWeave has pushed back on that concern, noting that it works with nine of the 10 largest AI platforms and is not solely dependent on one customer. When it announced a partnership with Anthropic earlier in April, it reinforced that its customer base extends well beyond OpenAI, Motley Fool reported.

But the risk is real. CoreWeave has taken on significant debt to scale its infrastructure, and a slowdown at OpenAI could create pressure on its growth trajectory at a time when its balance sheet leaves little room for error. The company’s debt-to-equity ratio sits at 4.85, according to CoinCentral. That leverage amplifies both the upside and the downside.

Key figures from ARK’s April 28 CoreWeave purchase:

• Shares purchased: 162,306, split across ARKK and ARKW, according to Investing.com

• Total transaction value: approximately $18.18 million, Investing.com confirmed

• CoreWeave closing price on April 28: $105.53, down 5.83% on the day, according to TipRanks

• ARK’s total CoreWeave investment year to date: at least $80 million, according to Stocktwits

• CoreWeave’s five-year OpenAI revenue deal: up to $11.9 billion, according to Motley Fool

• CoreWeave customers: nine of the 10 largest AI platforms globally, including Google, Microsoft, Meta, and Anthropic, Motley Fool noted

• CoreWeave revenue growth: more than doubled in each of its first four quarters since going public, Motley Fool confirmed

• CoreWeave debt-to-equity ratio: 4.85, reflecting heavy leverage to fund infrastructure buildout, according to CoinCentral

• TipRanks consensus: Moderate Buy, average price target $114.20, implying roughly 8% upside from current levels, according to TipRanks

What else ARK bought on the same day

CoreWeave was not the only move ARK made on April 28. Wood also purchased 40,656 shares of Alphabet through ARKK, valued at approximately $14.17 million, positioning ahead of Alphabet’s Q1 2026 earnings report, according to TipRanks. ARK also added 98,393 shares of Kratos Defense and Security Solutions through ARKK for approximately $6.2 million, Investing.com noted.

On the sell side, ARK reduced its position in Bullish, a crypto exchange and media company. The combined picture on April 28 was of an ARK that was rotating aggressively into AI infrastructure and adjacent themes while trimming digital asset exposure.

What this signals about Wood’s view of CoreWeave

An $18.18 million single-day purchase after a stock drops 6% is not a tentative move. It is a statement. Wood has now built a CoreWeave position worth at least $80 million in 2026 alone, buying repeatedly across a range of prices and market conditions.

That pattern reflects a specific conviction: that the selloff in CoreWeave related to OpenAI’s reported shortfalls is a market overreaction to a company whose customer base, revenue trajectory, and infrastructure position are fundamentally stronger than the near-term noise suggests.

CoreWeave is still a high-risk, high-leverage growth stock. The debt load is significant. The OpenAI dependency is real, even if the broader customer base mitigates it. And the AI infrastructure market is competitive, with the largest cloud providers investing heavily to capture the same demand CoreWeave is serving.

Wood’s purchases do not eliminate those risks. They signal that she believes the growth trajectory justifies accepting them. For investors watching ARK’s moves as a signal of where institutional conviction is flowing in AI infrastructure, the April 28 purchase is the clearest data point yet on where Wood stands.

Related: Cathie Wood buys $2.5 million of tumbling megacap stock

This story was originally published by TheStreet on Apr 30, 2026, where it first appeared in the Investing section. Add TheStreet as a Preferred Source by clicking here.