Billionaire “bond king” Bill Gross ripped CNBC and other business media outlets for their fawning coverage of tech investor Cathie Wood – despite her fund’s middling performance in the last few 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 popular fund that tracks 100 of the largest and most-traded companies listed on the tech-heavy Nasdaq index. QQQ has jumped in value by 78% over the last five years.
Meanwhile, Wood’s ARK Innovation ETF, the flagship fund offered by her firm ARK Investment Management, fell in value by more than 4% over the same period through Tuesday trading.
The ARK Innovation ETF has plunged by more than 70% from its peak in early 2021, when the tech sector was still in the midst of its pandemic-era boom in valuations.
Companies listed on Wood’s ETF include Tesla, its largest holding, as well as lesser-known tech firms such as Zoom, Roku, Coinbase and Shopify.
A prominent booster of Tesla and cryptocurrencies, Wood has been a fixture on CNBC, Bloomberg and other business outlets in recent years. She is often interviewed or quoted for her views on the performance of Tesla, Twitter and other big-name tech stocks.
While Gross did not specify what prompted him to lash out at Wood, his tweet posted just hours after she appeared on CNBC’s “Squawk on the Street.”
During the wide-ranging interview, Wood gave her views on the current state of bitcoin, artificial intelligence and the Federal Reserve’s fight against inflation. She also touted the long-term potential of her fund.
“Some of the stocks we have in the portfolio, the top five, they have proprietary data, including Tesla,” Wood said. “Billions and billions of miles of real-world driving data that nobody else has. Most of our companies are going to be sleepers because of that proprietary data.”
Wood has remained confident despite the ETF’s recent slump.
“We are the new Nasdaq,” Wood told Bloomberg earlier this month.
Wood acknowledged that last year was “horrific” for her fund’s performance, though the ETF still saw a positive inflow of about $1.3 billion during the 12-month period.
The Post has reached out to CNBC and Wood’s Ark Invest for comment on Gross’ remarks.
