ARK Invest has some of the hottest ETFs, with investments in Tesla, Roku, and other disruptive companies, that have returned over 100% for 2020. Led by Catherine Wood, they just released their "Big Ideas 2021" report with a fascinating analysis of technology trends and disruptors: https://ark-invest.com/big-ideas-2021/
This report focuses on 15 areas they see opportunity for investment going forward. Three of the 15 areas include biotechnology that I'm not interested in. But two of those three were new areas they were reporting on, suggesting that it's a quickly evolving area.
The remaining twelve areas of interest should probably be familiar to anyone following technology trends. However, I do think some predictions are bolder than others. The rise of ARM chips in the datacenter and on PCs is probably more obvious than ground-breaking, but I think it foretells continued profitability for Cloud software stocks. Beyond the typical CPU, ARK sees continued growth for GPU and special purpose chips powering increasingly complex, AI systems.
While 2020 has seen the rise of video conferencing from companies like ZM, ARK Invest sees the rise of virtual worlds, including video games, VR, and AR. Inside these worlds they predict more revenue will come from virtual goods. In five years, they see a huge market for VR and AR, far beyond what is available today.
ARK Invest appears to be a bitcoin bull, and also sees real opportunity in digital wallets.
In transportation, they see continued growth in EVs, ride-sharing, autonomous vehicles, and drone delivery, not to mention orbital aerospace.
Finally, they mention 3-d printing an area, I think has been uninvestable for years. While ARK sees opportunity in this area, I'm definitely skeptical. Sales in this area have been flat or declining in recent years, not a great indicator for future growth.
All of these areas of technology show incredible promise, but the real question is which companies in these sectors are investable. That the report is not too specific about, but it is certainly an interesting read on the future.
