After SpaceX, Cathie Wood Bets Big on Elon Musk's xAI

Ark Invest CEO and Founder Cathie Wood is no stranger to loving companies that are founded and/or run by Elon Musk, with her early bets on Tesla, SpaceX and others.

The Ark Venture Fund, which offers access to private companies, added to its stake in a Musk company during the first quarter. This is in addition to SpaceX already being the fund’s top holding.

What Happened: During the first quarter, the Ark Venture Fund reinvested in X Corp, the company previously known as Twitter. That new stake converted into a position in xAI, Musk's artificial intelligence company, thanks to a merger of the two companies.

The merger valued xAI at $80 billion and X at $33 billion to create the combined xAI Holdings Corp company.

Ark's quarter summary letter said the combined company will integrate the "cutting-edge foundational models" of xAI with X's user base of more than 600 million people. The letter said the merger could "unlock a platform that blends real-time communication with AI-enhanced discovery, truth-seeking, and personalized knowledge delivery."

"We believe this merger will be a significant catalyst for consumer AI adoption and foundational model monetization," the letter said.

Here are the fund's top 10 holdings as of April 30, with the percent of the fund's assets:

SpaceX: 14.6%
OpenAI: 7.5%
X.AI: 6.3%
Hammerspace: 3.6%
Anthropic: 3.5%
Lambda Labs: 3.5%
Blockdaemon: 3.3%
Epic Games: 2.6%
Shield AI: 2.5%
Radiant Industries: 2.4%

SpaceX and xAI, two Musk-related companies are two of the top three holdings, while OpenAI, which Musk was also involved with previously, ranks second.

Together, the stakes in SpaceX and xAI represent 20.9% of the fund's assets.

Other Investments: The Ark Venture Fund made several investments in sectors it believes in for the long-term as part of its strategy to find innovative companies.

"Amid the volatility and uncertainty dominating the opening months of the year, our conviction in the opportunity to invest in disruptive innovation remains strong," Ark said.

In the Robotics sector, Ark Venture Fund invested in Apptronik and Kodiak Robotics. The company said Apptronik is addressing global labor shortages and working toward a future where robots and humans can work together. Kodiak Robotics is an autonomous trucking company founded by Don Burnette, who was a co-founder of Uber's self-driving truck division.

"As autonomous logistics scales, Kodiak is well positioned to lead in operational efficiency and safety."

The Ark Venture Fund also made its first investment in the nuclear energy space with an investment in Radiant Nuclear. The letter says Radiant Nuclear was founded by former SpaceX engineers.

Semiconductor company Groq and cloud infrastructure company Lambda Labs were new investments by the fund for the next-generation internet sector.

"With strong momentum in both government and enterprise sectors, Groq is emerging as a core player in real-time AI computer infrastructure."

Other investments by Ark in the quarter also include fintech Revolut and Generate:Biomedicines and Lila Sciences in the AI sciences space.

"We are energized by what's ahead in 2025 and encouraged by the growth and engagement of our investor community."

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Cathie Wood, Ark Invest Announce Stake In OpenAI: Here’s How You Can Get Exposure To ChatGPT Parent, X (Twitter), SpaceX, Discord, Epic Games

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