Cathie Wood's Successor? This Guy May Just Be The Next To Lead Ark Invest — Here's How He Thinks

The Cathie Wood-led and closely followed Ark Invest fund is doubling down on the overarching idea that emerging innovation platforms will radically transform the global economy by creating a new chief futurist role. The company is assigning its former director of research, who has a bachelor of science in mechanical engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), to it.

What Happened: According to a Wednesday press release, Ark Invest is following plans to scale its research department, promoting Brett Winton to the role of chief futurist, where he will create and develop a unique role in the asset management industry while continuing in his role on the ARK Venture Investment Committee.

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As chief futurist, Winton will focus on the convergence between and among the five innovation platforms and 14 underlying technologies around which ARK has centered its research and investments.

"According to our research, emerging innovation platforms will transform our lives and the global economy radically, potentially scaling their equity market capitalizations from $7-$8 trillion today to more than $200 trillion in 2030," said Wood.

Winton, as defined by his new role, will drive ARK's long-term forecasts across convergent technologies, economies and asset classes.

"Forecasting, dimensioning and anticipating the impact of disruptive innovation will be essential for investors seeking superior investment returns over the long-term," Winton said in the press release.

He predicts the market for AI software would outpace the existing software industry by an order of magnitude before 2030, and robotaxis could be priced profitably at less than the cash cost of driving yourself.

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According to Winton, in five years practically all early-stage cancers will be identifiable from a vial of blood for less than $300, and cryptocurrencies represent the most significant advancement in risk structuring since the creation of the limited liability corporation.

"As they catalyze and reinforce each other, we believe that, collectively, artificial intelligence, robotics, energy storage, genomic sequencing and blockchain technology will rise from less than 10% of the global public equity market capitalization to more than 60% by 2030, representing the largest period of value-creation in history,” the new chief futurist said.

Ark’s flagship fund, the ARK Innovation ETF ARKK has returned to near COVID-19 lows after enjoying a bull run that saw shares spike more than 300% in just 11 months.

Photo: Preechar Bowonkitwanchai via Shutterstock; Brett Winton, courtesy Ark Invest