According to Catherine Wood, Chief Investment Officer of ARK Invest, disruptive innovation is key to growth. Her fund is focused on identifying and investing in disruptive innovation, with many of ARK's ETF's outperforming alternative growth funds on the market. Ark’s assets under management hit $46.7bn in January 2021. Last year, they surged from $3.4bn to over $30bn, with many new investors piling in. Ark's five platforms of innovative disruption are:
DNA sequencing
Energy storage
Robotics
Artificial intelligence
Blockchain
Many of the funds investments are furthermore spread across upcoming investment sectors such as Space Exploration, 3D Printing, Mobility-as-a-Service or Cryptocurrency. But to what extend is investing into disruptive innovation viable/ overrated? What are the sectors that will shape the companies of tomorrow?
I believe right now is the best time to invest in disruptive innovation.
Society has never been that much digitised and the coronavirus pandemic confirmed it, if not, increased global digitalisation even more.
History has shown the effectiveness of new emerging technologies in creating enormous wealth-building opportunities ( ie. Smartphones in 2000s, 3G/4G networks )
Moreover, the pandemic forced most human beings to stay at home. Global internet use skyrocketed, therefore creating an ever-growing need of faster internet, more precisely 5G network which will be the technology to watch out for within the next decade. Investing in that type of disruptive innovation is then very lucrative.
With regards to AI, its investment worth is undisputed. Elon Musk, Tesla Inc. CEO, just became the richest person on Earth. He is an Artificial Intelligence pioneer with intentions to build driverless cars, underground roads, and many other unique ambitions. It is well known nowadays that the more successful people like Elon Musk or Bill Gates invest their time and money into a certain technology ( ie. Bitcoin ), the more the masses will trust that technology. It only takes one tweet from Musk to potentially double the Bitcoin price. There is no reason as to why that could not happen to AI as well.
Finally, investing in Robotics should also be on investors’ bucket list. The rise of technology has devalued human qualities. Nowadays, a computer is capable as much, if not, twice as much as what a human being is capable to achieve.
It has recently been reported that numerous banks and hedge funds could continue to operate without the need to employ human beings. Robots are being built to exert any task a banker would have to do. This will most likely lead to a huge loss of employment, however, in terms of technology, it is extraordinary.