Person holding cellphone with logo of American eVTOL aircraft company Archer Aviation Inc. on screen in front of webpage

Cathie Wood Bets Big on Flying Taxis With Joby, Archer Trades—Invests in TSLA Robotaxi Rivals WeRide, Pony AI

Cathie Wood-led ARK Invest has backed Electric Vertical Takeoff and Landing (eVTOL) stocks in its latest trades with investments in flying taxi companies like Joby Aviation Inc. (NYSE:JOBY) and Archer Aviation Inc. (NYSE:ACHR).

ARK Invest Buys Joby, Archer

On Tuesday, the ARK Innovation ETF (BATS:ARKK) bought 1,787,367 shares of Archer Aviation. At market close on Tuesday, Archer shares fell 1.48% to $4.6500, meaning that Wood bought roughly $8.31 million worth of the company’s shares with the trade.

The ARK Autonomous Technology & Robotics ETF (BATS:ARKQ) also saw investments in Archer as the firm bought 562,685 shares, in a trade totaling roughly $2.6 million.

The ETF also bought 543,906 shares of Joby Aviation, which traded at $5.78 at market close on Tuesday. At its current value, the Joby trade was worth approximately $3.14 million.

The ARK Space & Defense Innovation ETF (BATS:ARKX) also bought shares in both Joby Aviation and Archer Aviation, procuring 209,424 and 216,679 shares, respectively.

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The trades were worth approximately $1.21 million for the Joby Aviation stock purchase, while ARK invested just a little over $1 million in Archer with the trade.

Robotaxi Stocks

Besides eVTOL, ARK Invest also invested in Robotaxi companies and Tesla Inc.‘s (NASDAQ:TSLA) Chinese rivals WeRide Inc. (NASDAQ:WRD), Pony AI Inc. (NASDAQ:PONY) and Baidu Inc. (NASDAQ:BIDU), which backs the Robotaxi service Apollo Go.

ARK Invest’s Autonomous Tech and Robotics ETF bought 172,300 shares of Pony AI, which traded at $6.13 at market close on Tuesday, making the trade worth approximately $1.05 million.

ARK bought 11,484 shares of Baidu, which closed at $87.05 at market close. ARK’s Baidu trade was worth approximately $999,000.

The firm also backed WeRide, purchasing 61,900 shares of the Robotaxi company, which was trading at $5.12 at market close on Tuesday. The WeRide purchase was over $316,000.

Wood also purchased 529,654 shares of self-driving company Aurora Innovation Inc. (NASDAQ:AUR). Aurora shares were trading at $5.75 at market close, making the trade worth roughly $3.04 million.

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