Cathie Wood sells $4M of surging AI stock after 38% rally

Cathie Wood’s ARK Innovation ETF dumped nearly 58,000 shares of Tempus AI on August 25, locking in roughly $4 million after the healthcare AI stock ripped more than 38% in a single week. The move is classic Wood: let a winner run, then shave the position before gravity sets in.

Tempus AI closed at $68.48 on the day of the sale, capping a blistering rally that started on August 18. The catalyst was positive clinical trial data tied to a personalized mRNA cancer vaccine developed through a collaboration between Merck and Moderna.

What ARK actually did

ARKK offloaded precisely 57,819 shares of Tempus AI (NASDAQ: TEM), a company that builds AI-powered diagnostic tools and sells anonymized clinical data to pharmaceutical firms. Before the trim, Tempus sat as the fund’s second-largest holding, a position that ballooned in weight as the stock surged.

The stock had posted a year-to-date gain of about 16% heading into the sale, meaning a good chunk of that performance came from the late-August spike alone.

The bigger picture at ARK

ARKK has hemorrhaged approximately $1.7 billion in net outflows over the past twelve months, a sign that the retail investor base that powered ARK’s pandemic-era rise has been steadily rotating elsewhere.

That outflow number matters because it constrains Wood’s ability to hold conviction positions through drawdowns. When money leaves the fund, she’s forced to sell holdings she might otherwise keep. Conversely, trimming winners during rallies can help generate cash to meet redemptions without fire-selling weaker names at the worst possible time.

The fact that Tempus remains ARKK’s second-largest holding even after the sale tells you where Wood’s conviction actually sits. She’s not exiting the position. She’s sizing it appropriately after a week that made it too big for comfort.

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