On August 17, Cathie Wood’s Ark Invest carried out a notable portfolio shift, increasing its Nvidia exposure while reducing positions in Advanced Micro Devices and Palantir Technologies. Ark is one of the most closely followed active managers in technology and growth stocks, and because the firm publishes its trades each trading day, moves of this size are quickly picked up by investors who track its allocations as a read on how professional money is positioning around AI.

Through the ARKK ETF, Ark bought 101,356 shares of Nvidia at a closing price of $225.01 per share. The transaction was worth about $22.8 million. Ark also added Nvidia shares through its ARKF, ARKQ, ARKW, and ARKX funds.

Nvidia purchase comes amid expansion in AI infrastructure

The buying activity came as Nvidia continues expanding in artificial intelligence infrastructure. Nvidia’s data center chips are the dominant hardware for training and running large AI models, which places the company at the center of the industry’s infrastructure buildout. The company recently secured 4.25 gigawatts of data center capacity in Ohio for OpenAI operations. Industry analysts estimate that the facility could generate between $150 billion and $200 billion in revenue for Nvidia per hardware generation cycle.

Reports have also suggested that Nvidia and OpenAI are renegotiating their financial arrangement. The two companies announced a broad partnership in September 2025 under which Nvidia said it would invest up to $100 billion in OpenAI AI systems. Under the renegotiation discussions, Nvidia’s exposure could fall from $250 billion to below $120 billion. Even so, OpenAI’s total computing commitments through 2030 could still amount to about $600 billion in Nvidia infrastructure.

Ark trims AMD despite strong year-to-date gains

At the same time, Ark sold 25,917 shares of AMD across its ARKF, ARKQ, ARKW, and ARKX portfolios. The shares were valued at roughly $13.1 million.

AMD has posted strong performance this year, with shares up 136% year to date and 7% over the previous five trading sessions. AMD is the largest alternative supplier of AI accelerators after Nvidia, and its Instinct GPUs have been adopted by major cloud providers seeking additional sources of high-end AI compute. In the second quarter, the company’s data center segment reported 107% year-over-year revenue growth.

Chief Executive Lisa Su said server revenue could grow by more than 80% year over year in the second half of fiscal 2026. Management also expects data center sales to more than double by 2027.

Wall Street remains upbeat on AMD despite Ark’s sale. Bank of America analyst Vivek Arya kept a Buy rating and a $620 price target, calling AMD the most competitively advantaged CPU supplier in the market. Phillip Securities analyst Yik Ban Chong set a higher target of $755, citing expectations that Anthropic will deploy 2 gigawatts of AMD’s MI450 GPU technology starting next year, which he said could generate $30 billion in incremental revenue.

The consensus view among 26 analysts is a Strong Buy, with an average price target of $651.32, or about 28% above current levels.

Palantir position reduced as well

Ark also cut its Palantir stake, selling 22,023 shares through the ARKF ETF. Based on Palantir’s $172.55 closing price, the sale was worth about $3.8 million.

Palantir has taken a different approach to artificial intelligence, building software platforms that work with multiple AI models rather than developing proprietary systems. That strategy reduces the need for large-scale infrastructure spending while still keeping the company exposed to growth in the AI sector.

Other August 17 portfolio moves included Ark purchases of Cloudflare and Tempus AI shares, as well as complete exits from Roblox and Twist Bioscience positions.

Wood’s reduction in AMD may reflect portfolio rebalancing toward Nvidia rather than a negative view of AMD’s AI growth outlook. For those following the story, Ark’s daily trade disclosures will show whether the Nvidia additions and the AMD and Palantir trims continued in subsequent sessions, and the reported Nvidia-OpenAI renegotiation is another open thread to follow.