Cathie Wood: Gold Is the Bubble, Not AI, as Bitcoin Shines

Cathie Wood’s timing was uncanny. On Thursday, as gold surged to a new all-time high above $5,600 an ounce, Wood took to social media platform X to warn her followers. “Odds are high that the gold price is heading for a fall,” she posted, arguing that such parabolic moves often signal the end of a cycle. “In our view, the bubble today is not in AI, but in gold.” Her prediction materialized with startling speed. Within 24 hours, gold had tumbled nearly 9% to trade around $4,861. The sell-off in silver was even more severe, cratering more than 27% to approximately $83.

This sharp correction provided immediate validation for Wood’s stance. The drop came as gold hit a record percentage of the U.S. M2 money supply in intraday trading, a metric highlighted by Ark Invest data. For Wood, the rapid reversal served as a case study in bubble dynamics, reinforcing her argument that investor frenzy had shifted from technology to traditional safe havens. The dramatic move in precious metals underscores the volatility Wood associates with an asset she believes is fundamentally mispriced.

Central to Cathie Wood’s critique of gold is her fervent advocacy for Bitcoin. She positions the cryptocurrency not merely as an alternative but as a technologically superior scarcity asset. In her 2026 outlook report, Wood drew a critical distinction: “Gold miners, by boosting production of gold, can do something not possible with Bitcoin.” She contrasts this with Bitcoin’s programmed, inelastic supply, which is “mathematically metered to increase ~0.82% per year for the next two years, at which point its growth will decelerate to ~0.41% per year.”

This mathematical certainty forms the bedrock of Wood’s long-term bullish thesis for Bitcoin. As CEO of Ark Invest, she has projected a price target of $1.2 million per Bitcoin by 2030—a figure that itself represents a downward revision from a previous $1.5 million estimate, which she adjusted due to growing stablecoin adoption. Her firm’s investment strategy reflects this conviction, holding major positions in crypto equities like American exchange Coinbase (COIN) and stablecoin issuer Circle, alongside its own spot Bitcoin ETF, ARKB.

While sounding the alarm on gold, Cathie Wood has been conspicuously dismissive of widespread concerns that artificial intelligence investment is forming a bubble. In fact, she finds the comparison reassuring. “The fact that so many people are worried that we are in an AI cycle, like the tech and telecom bubble, actually reassures me,” Wood said on an Ark Invest podcast in November. “It’s very different from what happened during the tech and telecom bubble.”

This stance exists in tension with evident market nerves. On the same Thursday Wood called the gold bubble, shares in technology giant Microsoft (MSFT) fell more than 10% as investors questioned higher-than-expected spending related to AI. This sell-off highlights a palpable anxiety among some market participants that the massive capital flowing into AI infrastructure may not yield proportional returns, potentially setting the stage for a painful correction. Wood’s commentary positions Ark Invest as a contrarian voice, arguing that the fundamental transformation driven by AI justifies current investment levels, unlike what she perceives as the speculative excess in gold.

Cathie Wood’s declarations are not merely academic; they guide the strategic positioning of Ark Invest. The firm’s vested interest in the success of Bitcoin and the broader crypto ecosystem—through holdings in COIN, Circle, and ARKB—aligns perfectly with her public disparagement of gold and advocacy for digital scarcity. Her narrative frames a clear investment dichotomy: exit the overinflated, analog bubble of precious metals and embrace the digitally native, mathematically sound future represented by Bitcoin.

The recent volatility presents a complex picture for investors. The simultaneous plunge in gold and silver and the stumble in AI-adjacent stocks like Microsoft create a landscape of cross-currents. Wood’s analysis cuts through this noise, identifying gold’s parabolic rise as the primary systemic risk while characterizing AI’s growing pains as necessary evolution. Her ability to correctly forecast gold’s sharp pullback lends weight to her broader thesis, even as the long-term outcomes for both Bitcoin and AI remain fiercely debated. For now, Wood has staked her reputation and her firm’s capital on a future where digital assets eclipse traditional ones, and technological innovation avoids the excesses of past manias.