Cathie Wood's China Bet: Ark Buys Alibaba's AI Surge And Baidu's Autonomous Future, Dump's Stock Of Crypto-Pivot Brera
News Summary
On October 1, 2025, Cathie Wood's Ark Invest executed several significant trades. The ARK Innovation ETF (ARKK) purchased 52,388 shares of Baidu Inc. (NASDAQ:BIDU), valued at approximately $6.9 million. This comes as Baidu aggressively expands its Apollo Go robotaxi business into new markets, reportedly in talks with governments in Australia and Southeast Asia, and having secured 50 trial licenses in Dubai. ARKK also acquired 23,538 shares of Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. (NYSE:BABA), a transaction valued at around $4.1 million. This move aligns with Alibaba's recent stock performance, which has seen a 29% rise over the past month, driven by its advancements in cloud computing and AI. Alibaba's Qwen3-Omni AI system recently topped Hugging Face's trending model list, outperforming rivals like OpenAI's GPT-4o and Google's Gemini. Conversely, Ark Invest's ARKK ETF sold 231,903 shares of Brera Holdings PLC (NASDAQ:BREA), valued at approximately $6.6 million. This divestment follows Brera's recent volatility, which saw a significant rally last month after announcing its Solana (CRYPTO:SOL) Treasury strategy and plans to rebrand as Solmate. Notably, Ark Invest had acquired a substantial 6,500,001 shares of Brera earlier in September, worth nearly $162 million.
Background
Ark Invest, led by Cathie Wood, is known for its investment strategy focused on "disruptive innovation." The fund typically seeks companies with long-term growth potential in areas such as artificial intelligence, robotics, genomics, energy storage, and blockchain technology. The global tech industry, especially in AI and autonomous driving, is currently experiencing rapid development and intense competition. Chinese tech giants Baidu and Alibaba play crucial roles in this global AI race, aiming for global influence through technological innovation and market expansion, beyond their domestic markets. Concurrently, cryptocurrency-related assets and companies, like Brera Holdings, continue to face a highly speculative investment environment due to inherent market volatility and regulatory uncertainties.
In-Depth AI Insights
Why is Ark Invest doubling down on Chinese tech giants under the Trump administration in 2025? - Ark Invest's actions suggest that its core investment thesis—betting on long-term disruptive innovation—remains steadfast despite ongoing pressure on Chinese technology from the U.S. Trump administration. Ark may perceive China's AI and autonomous driving sectors as having an undeniable lead in technology and market scale, with certain areas (like localized autonomous driving deployment) less susceptible to direct geopolitical impacts. - This strategy reflects a recognition of the indispensable role Chinese tech companies play in the global technological landscape, especially as firms like Alibaba and Baidu demonstrate robust independent R&D capabilities. Ark might be seeking Chinese "hard tech" assets capable of long-term value growth even amidst a "decoupling" narrative. What does Ark's swift divestment of Brera Holdings' crypto-related stock signal? - The rapid sale after a substantial purchase in early September could indicate a re-evaluation of Brera's "Solana Treasury strategy" in terms of its short-term volatility or long-term viability. Amidst the inherent high volatility of the cryptocurrency market, Ark may be prioritizing capital allocation efficiency and risk management, redirecting funds towards AI/autonomous driving sectors it deems to have higher certainty or growth potential. - This move might also reflect Ark's increased caution towards highly speculative or nascent business models in the current market environment, preferring to lock in profits or cut losses to avoid unnecessary capital risk. How does Alibaba's AI system, Qwen3-Omni, outperforming GPT-4o and Gemini in benchmarks, impact its medium-to-long-term investment value? - Alibaba's strong AI model performance, especially topping Hugging Face and surpassing international giants, significantly bolsters its competitive edge in cloud computing. Qwen3-Omni's success is likely to attract more enterprise clients to Alibaba Cloud, driving growth in its cloud services revenue and market share, and solidifying its central position in China's AI ecosystem. - This could also lead investors to re-evaluate Alibaba's deep capabilities as an integrated tech giant in both AI infrastructure and applications, thereby enhancing its long-term valuation. This move is not just about technological leadership but also about its strategic standing as a Chinese tech leader in global AI competition.