Tesla App Surge Hailed By Cathie Wood As Ark's Flagship Fund Bets Nearly $811 Million On Elon Musk's Futuristic Vision

Tesla Inc. TSLA continues to dominate ARK Invest's flagship portfolio as CEO Cathie Wood points to explosive early adoption of the company's Robotaxi service, which has already cracked the top 10 ride-hail app download days in U.S. history.

Tesla Anchors ARK's Innovation ETF

As of Monday, Sept. 8, 2025, Tesla makes up 11.16% of the ARK Innovation ETF ARKK, equal to a market value of about $811.65 million.

That weighting is nearly double the fund's next largest holding, Roku Inc. ROKU, which sits at 6.40%. Tesla's market cap currently stands at $1.1 trillion.

ARK's conviction in Tesla comes despite recent stock volatility. Shares have climbed more than 62% over the past 12 months, though they remain down 7.5% year-to-date, according to Benzinga Pro.

Also Read: Elon Musk Returns To Intense Work Schedule: ‘Back To Working 7 Days a Week and Sleeping in the Office'

Robotaxi App Surpasses Lyft And Challenges Uber

Over the weekend, Wood shared a chart from ARK's chief futurist Brett Winton showing Tesla's Robotaxi app debut ranked 10th all-time among U.S. ride-hailing app download days on Apple Inc.'s AAPL iOS store.

The ranking put Tesla ahead of Lyft Inc.'s LYFT best-ever day and in the same league as Uber Technologies, Inc.'s UBER New Year's Eve surges.

"On a random Thursday in September Tesla Robotaxi app downloads cracked the top 10 of all time highest US ride-hail activation days," Winton noted.

Wood shared the report, saying, "Here we go $TSLA Robotaxi!"

ARK also reported that Tesla's Robotaxi app downloads were 40% higher than Uber's 30-day rolling record and six times greater than Alphabet Inc.'s GOOG GOOGL Waymo app lifetime downloads.

ARK Sees $10 Trillion Opportunity

Wood has repeatedly called Tesla the world's largest AI project, forecasting that autonomous taxi networks could generate $8 trillion to $10 trillion in global revenue within a decade.

Tesla has the scaling advantage, ARK's research paper said last month, noting that the company's Austin facility could produce enough vehicles to surpass the entire ride-hail fleet in the city in just nine days.

The report added that Tesla collects 40 times more real-world driving data daily than Waymo and nearly 900 times more globally.

Regulatory Tailwinds And Expansion Plans

The Robotaxi rollout comes as U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy has proposed easing federal safety standards to accelerate autonomous vehicle deployment.

Meanwhile, Tesla confirmed its Robotaxi service in Austin is expanding to highways, with safety operators moving to the driver's seat for initial runs.

Benzinga's Edge Stock Rankings indicate that TSLA continues to trend upward across short, medium and long-term timeframes. While the stock boasts strong momentum, its value rating remains relatively low. Additional performance insights are available here.