Cathie Wood: AI Could Drive Growth Beyond the Industrial Revolution

Cathie Wood says today's technology wave is moving faster and across more areas than the Industrial Revolution. Global real GDP growth averaged about 0.6% before the Industrial Revolution, then jumped roughly fivefold to 3%.
ARK expects growth north of 7% over the next three to five years, driven by AI, robotics, energy storage, blockchain and multiomic sequencing. With more technologies advancing simultaneously, Wood thinks even 7% growth could look conservative in hindsight.
Traders are more conservative for 2026, putting the highest probability, 30%, on world GDP growth of just 3.1%.