This Is The Only Stock Cathie Wood Bought on Monday

Ark Invest has been building up its stake in AMD in recent weeks. Wood is buying the maker of microprocessors and graphics processing units (GPUs) on the way up. Shares are lower than they were a year ago, but they've moved 17% higher in 2025, nearly tripling the market's return. AMD has been particularly buoyant lately, soaring 86% since bottoming out in early April.

If AMD has nearly doubled in the past three months, only to climb just 17% over the past six months, you can imagine the big hole it has had to claw its way out of this year. AMD was a latecomer to the artificial intelligence (AI) revolution. Its revenue declined 4% in 2023. AI chip leader Nvidia (NASDAQ: NVDA) saw its business more than double in its comparable fiscal year.

AMD has been gaining momentum on the data center outfitter bandwagon. Since the fiscal second quarter of 2023, when revenue clocked in with an 18% year-over-year slide, AMD's top-line growth has accelerated in all but one of seven subsequent quarters. The turnaround has culminated in a 36% jump in its latest quarter. It even hosted a well-received AI event last month, collecting several bullish analyst notes in the process.

AMD is no Nvidia. The country's most valuable company by market cap saw its revenue skyrocket 69% for its latest fiscal quarter. However, there is obviously going to be more than just one winner as global demand for generative AI translates into a surge in demand.

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Taking the short way back

AMD stock plummeted through the first three months of this year for the same reasons Nvidia proved mortal. The initial downticks came when China's DeepSeek announced that it could deliver decent generative AI using older and cheaper secondhand Nvidia chips. That revelation sent shivers down the spines of every public AI player.

The next big hit for AMD and its chip-churning peers was the rising trade war with China. Investors were understandably skittish when tariffs were announced. The fears have cautiously subsided for the most part, but AI chip specialists are still dealing with export restrictions into China. Nvidia already took a $4.5 billion inventory charge in its previous quarter, and it's modeling $8 billion in sales it will have to forgo in the current quarter. Smaller AMD is bracing investors for a $700 million hit.

These are big numbers, but the stocks have rallied since early April as demand for high-tech GPUs is proving potent. The prospects are bright, even with the perhaps temporarily suppressed sales into the world's second most populous nation. AMD's strongest quarter in nearly three years was fueled by a 57% jump in its data center business to propel overall revenue growth of 36%. Operating income and adjusted earnings increased 57% and 55%, respectively.

AMD's bottom-line surge is making the stock seem reasonably priced despite the 86% burst since April 8. AMD is trading for 37 times this year's projected earnings, dropping to a multiple just shy of 25 if we look out to next year. This isn't a traditionally cheap valuation, but it's not outlandish, with analysts forecasting a 48% earnings improvement for AMD next year.

Wood has a lot of aggressive growth stocks in her ETF portfolios. It's worth noting when she buys only one stock.