Moonshots with Peter Diamandis · Sep 29, 2026 · recorded Sep 25, 2026 · 1h · 43m saved
With Cathie Wood, Founder, CEO and CIO of ARK Invest · Nikhil Chandhok, Chief Product and Technology Officer at Circle
ARK Invest's research puts a humanoid robot at 200,000 times the complexity of a robotaxi. Cathie Wood said that is why ARK expects humanoids to reach scale a couple of years after the timeline Elon Musk has given.
The host said Musk had told him he could imagine triple-digit GDP growth this decade. ARK's own forecast is 7 to 8% real growth within five years, and on robots too Wood said ARK agrees with Musk on direction but not on speed.
"So while Elon says maybe late 28 into 29 scaling, we would put that a couple of years later."
Cathie Wood, founder, CEO and CIO of ARK Invest, on Moonshots with Peter Diamandis, named Tesla and SpaceX as ARK's largest holdings. She spoke at Moonshots Live 2026 alongside Nikhil Chandhok, Chief Product and Technology Officer at Circle, the company behind the USDC stablecoin.
The full episode is covered here so you can skip it. 60 minutes of audio, 17 minutes of reading.
Here are the 13 calls that matter.
Key Takeaways
ARK expects Tesla and SpaceX to be combined, and they are its largest holdings
ARK's forecast is 7–8% real GDP growth within five years; Wood had never heard Musk say triple digits
Chandhok expects more AI agents than humans online next year
Wood called health care the most undervalued part of the AI trade
A humanoid robot is 200,000 times as complex as a robotaxi, on ARK's research
ARK puts humanoid scaling a couple of years after Musk's late 2028 to 2029
Without nuclear regulation, Wood said, US electricity would cost half what it does now
Wood expects labor shortages, not mass job losses, from AI
Wood said the dollar is going to go up, as it doubled in the early 1980s
ARK has not changed its bitcoin forecast, though stablecoins took over one role it expected bitcoin to play
1. Tesla and SpaceX Will Merge
The host opened by saying ARK's team has said a Tesla and SpaceX merger could be announced this year. He asked what Musk wants from it, and whether SpaceX needs to reach a certain valuation first so that the dilution is not too large.
ARK expects the deal, with Mars as the goal
"So we do think it's going to happen. What is his ultimate goal? Well, he tells us all the time it's Mars." — Cathie Wood
Wood said Musk is building businesses along the way. The first is global broadband connectivity, which she called unbelievably profitable and already large by revenue. The second is a business selling AI computing capacity, which she called a neocloud and described as a giant pivot for xAI.
Musk thinks cheap computing wins the AI race
"But Elon believes that the leader, the AI leader in terms of frontier models is going to be the company with the most computing capacity and at the cheapest cost. And with orbital data centers, he thinks he will be that company." — Cathie Wood
She said he is going after OpenAI and Anthropic.
Tesla and SpaceX top ARK's holdings
A moderator said SpaceX is his own largest holding and asked about hers.
"Yeah, Tesla and SpaceX. And we do believe they will be combined." — Cathie Wood
A moderator asked how Musk squares Tesla's business in China with his work for the Defense Department. Wood agreed it is one of the roadblocks.
