Years after significantly reducing exposure to Chinese tech stocks, Cathie Wood’s ARK Invest funds are piling back into names like Baidu and WeRide.
A Dec. 8 trading disclosure shows the ARK Innovation exchange-traded fund purchased 51,300 shares of Baidu, increasing its stake to 614,550 shares of the internet services company, valued at some $79.9 million. As of Dec. 9, Baidu represented roughly 1% of the fund’s total holdings.
Also on Monday, ARKK sold 2,100 Tesla shares. The fund held 2,105,657 shares of Tesla as of the following day, worth around $925.6 million. Despite the sale, Tesla remains the fund’s largest holding by weight, comprising nearly 12% of the portfolio. The next-largest holding, Coinbase Global, makes up just 5.5%.
Baidu wasn’t the only Chinese stock that piqued the interest of Wood’s firm. The ARK Autonomous Technology & Robotics ETF bought 17,300 more shares of self-driving technology company WeRide on Dec. 8, bringing its holdings to 972,963 shares worth some $9 million.
ARK Invest didn’t respond to a request for comment on the transactions.
Baidu’s U.S.-listed shares jumped 3.5% on Monday after the so-called Google of China disclosed it was weighing a spinoff of its artificial-intelligence chip unit. The move comes as part of a broader effort by Chinese tech companies to minimize their dependency on foreign technology. Shares have gained 47% in 2025, outpacing a 17% gain for the S&P 500 index.
WeRide, meanwhile, has fallen 38% this year. It has faced stiff competition from rival Pony AI and concerns over its valuation. The software company, which also operates a robo-taxi fleet, became the first self-driving company to achieve a primary listing on both the Nasdaq Exchange and Hong Kong stock exchange last month.
ARK Invest has been slowly wading into Chinese tech again. In late September, two of the firm’s exchange-traded funds snapped up Alibaba stock for the first time since 2021, days before Alibaba made a series of announcements related to its AI business. Wood’s ARK funds shed nearly all Chinese stocks in 2021 after Beijing targeted some of the country’s largest technology companies in a regulatory crackdown.
Inside Scoop is a regular Barron’s feature covering stock transactions by corporate executives and board members—so-called insiders—as well as large shareholders, politicians, and other prominent figures. Due to their insider status, these investors are required to disclose stock trades with the Securities and Exchange Commission or other regulatory groups.
Write to Mackenzie Tatananni at mackenzie.tatananni@barrons.com
