Billionaire “bond king” Bill Gross ripped CNBC and other business media outlets for his or her fawning coverage of tech investor Cathie Wood – despite her fund’s middling performance in the previous couple of years.
Gross, the outspoken co-founder of the PIMCO bond-trading empire who has an estimated fortune of $1.6 billion, questioned Wood’s rise to media prominence on Twitter.
“CNBC/media idolatry of Cathie Wood is absurd,” Gross tweeted on Monday evening. “Over past 5 years QQQ has outperformed ARKK by nearly 100%.”
Gross’ tweet referenced Invesco QQQ, a preferred fund that tracks 100 of the most important and most-traded firms listed on the tech-heavy Nasdaq index. QQQ has jumped in value by 78% over the past five years.
Meanwhile, Wood’s ARK Innovation ETF, the flagship fund offered by her firm ARK Investment Management, fell in value by greater than 4% over the identical period through Tuesday trading.
The ARK Innovation ETF has plunged by greater than 70% from its peak in early 2021, when the tech sector was still within the midst of its pandemic-era boom in valuations.
Firms listed on Wood’s ETF include Tesla, its largest holding, in addition to lesser-known tech firms similar to Zoom, Roku, Coinbase and Shopify.
A outstanding booster of Tesla and cryptocurrencies, Wood has been a fixture on CNBC, Bloomberg and other business outlets in recent times. She is usually interviewed or quoted for her views on the performance of Tesla, Twitter and other big-name tech stocks.
While Gross didn’t specify what prompted him to lash out at Wood, his tweet posted just hours after she appeared on CNBC’s “Squawk on the Street.”
In the course of the wide-ranging interview, Wood gave her views on the present state of bitcoin, artificial intelligence and the Federal Reserve’s fight against inflation. She also touted the long-term potential of her fund.
“A few of the stocks we have now within the portfolio, the highest five, they’ve proprietary data, including Tesla,” Wood said. “Billions and billions of miles of real-world driving data that no person else has. Most of our firms are going to be sleepers due to that proprietary data.”
Wood has remained confident despite the ETF’s recent slump.
“We’re the brand new Nasdaq,” Wood told Bloomberg earlier this month.
Wood acknowledged that last 12 months was “horrific” for her fund’s performance, though the ETF still saw a positive inflow of about $1.3 billion throughout the 12-month period.
The Post has reached out to CNBC and Wood’s Ark Invest for comment on Gross’ remarks.
