Cathie Wood's Ark Invest purchased approximately $17.3 million in Circle (CRCL) stock and roughly $20 million in SpaceX stock on Wednesday, with both acquisitions executed on the same day that SpaceX shares fell 13.6% amid a surge in capital expenditures tied to AI infrastructure. The twin purchases are consistent with Ark's long-stated strategy of accumulating positions in companies it categorizes as disruptive innovators, often adding on pullbacks.

Circle Beats Profit Estimates but Falls Short on Revenue

Ark Invest acquired 273,343 Circle shares distributed across three funds: the Ark Innovation ETF (ARKK), the Ark Next Generation Internet ETF (ARKW), and the Ark Blockchain & Fintech Innovation ETF (ARKF). Circle closed nearly flat that session, edging up 0.05% to $63.28, placing the value of the newly acquired stake at approximately $17.3 million.

According to Ark's disclosures, the USDC issuer ranks ninth among ARKK holdings, carrying a 3.68% portfolio weight valued at $223.4 million. Ark caps individual positions at 10% of a fund's assets, meaning the firm diversifies across its ETF lineup and retains capacity to increase its Circle exposure further.

For the second quarter, Circle reported total revenue and reserve income of $701 million, representing a 7% year-over-year increase. However, the result fell short of analyst expectations, which ranged between $712 million and $718 million. CRCL shares declined approximately 3% in premarket trading before recovering.

On profitability metrics, Circle delivered adjusted earnings of 18 cents per share, surpassing the consensus estimate of 16 cents. Net income from continuing operations stood at $48 million, while adjusted EBITDA rose 8% to $143 million. Total USDC in circulation grew 19% to $73.3 billion, and onchain transaction volume surged 151% to $14.8 trillion. USDC remains the second-largest stablecoin by market capitalization, trailing Tether's USDT.

Reserve income—the revenue Circle earns on the assets backing USDC—reached $668 million, up 5% from a year earlier. However, the yield on those reserves declined by 66 basis points, leaving Circle with larger reserves but lower returns per dollar deployed. The decline tracks the broader easing of short-term interest rates, which directly affects the Treasury bills and cash equivalents that back USDC.

Circle's Arc blockchain is slated to launch on public mainnet on September 16, with BlackRock, DTCC, Visa, and Mastercard named among the founding validators. The launch represents Circle's push beyond stablecoin issuance into settlement infrastructure, an area where incumbent financial institutions and rival blockchain networks are also competing.

SpaceX Drops 13.6% Following Sixfold Capex Increase

Ark Invest also purchased 181,830 SpaceX shares across four funds—ARKK, the Ark Autonomous Technology & Robotics ETF (ARKQ), ARKW, and the Ark Space & Defense Innovation ETF (ARKX)—amounting to a stake of approximately $20 million.

The buy coincided with SpaceX falling 13.6% to $108.27, trading below its $135 IPO price. Revenue for the period soared 92% year-over-year to $7.8 billion, though the company posted a net loss of $541 million.

The sell-off was driven by a dramatic rise in spending: capital expenditures climbed to $18.4 billion, a sixfold increase over the quarter, primarily directed toward AI infrastructure buildout. SpaceX's capex surge mirrors a broader pattern across the technology sector, where major companies including Microsoft, Amazon, Google parent Alphabet, and Meta have each committed tens of billions to AI data center and compute capacity expansion.

Elon Musk told the earnings call that SpaceX now targets $1 trillion in annual revenue by 2030, or potentially as early as 2029, moving ahead of a previously stated 2031 timeline. At the reported $7.8 billion revenue figure, the company would need to sustain an extraordinary growth trajectory to bridge the gap, with its Starlink satellite internet service and launch business serving as the primary revenue drivers.