Cathie Wood Loads Up $2.8M In This Self-Driving Trucking Company As Shares Plunge 38% In A Week

Cathie Wood-led Ark Investment Management on Monday further raised its exposure in self-driving trucking company TuSimple Holdings Inc (NYSE: TSP) on the dip.

The popular stock-picking firm loaded up 260,318 shares — estimated to be worth $2.79 million based on Monday’s closing price — in the San Diego, California-based autonomous trucking startup.

TuSimple stock closed 6.4% lower at $10.75 a share on Monday, sinking further below its April IPO price of $40. The stock has slumped about 38% in the past week.

Ark Invest owns shares in TuSimple via two of its six exchange-traded funds — the Ark Innovation ETF (NYSE: ARKK) and the Ark Autonomous Technology & Robotics ETF (BATS: ARKQ).

The St. Petersburg, Florida-based money managing firm held 11 million shares — worth $126.6 million— in TuSimple, prior to Monday’s trade.

See Also: Cathie Wood's Ark Is Bullish On This Self-Driving Startup Despite Last Week's 32% Plunge

The latest purchase represents about 2% of Ark's stake in the company, which is developing commercial-ready, Level 4, fully autonomous trucks for customers.

TuSimple’s unexpected management shuffle last week saw co-founder and CTO Xiaodi Hou taking over the CEO and chairman roles from Cheng Lu. 

The company said it was part of a "planned executive succession." The move spooked investors, sending its shares down 21% on Thursday and a further 13% down a day later.

Wood's firm, which has placed bets on electric vehicle companies Tesla Inc (NASDAQ: TSLA) and Xpeng Inc (NYSE: XPEV), said it has “confidence in Xiaodi’s ability to execute on TuSimple’s autonomous strategy.”

Photo: Courtesy of TuSimple