Ark Invest sells Palantir and AMD, boosts stake in Archer Aviation

Cathie Wood is doing what Cathie Wood does best: selling what’s working and buying what most people still think is science fiction.

ARK Invest offloaded 38,395 shares of Palantir Technologies and 19,491 shares of Advanced Micro Devices on September 8, 2026, pulling roughly $16.4 million out of two of the market’s most prominent AI plays. The firm simultaneously scooped up 575,700 shares of Archer Aviation, the electric vertical takeoff and landing company building air taxis.

The numbers behind the trade

The Palantir sale clocked in at approximately $6.54 million, while the AMD disposal was worth about $9.9 million. The Archer Aviation purchase, by contrast, cost roughly $3.35 million.

ARK’s total position in Archer Aviation now sits at nearly 31.96 million shares, valued at approximately $151 million as of the second quarter of 2026. That stake represents about 4.09% of Archer’s outstanding shares, making Wood’s firm one of the company’s most significant institutional backers.

Within ARK’s own portfolio, Archer accounts for roughly 0.98% of total assets.

Why sell Palantir and AMD now

Both Palantir and AMD have been major beneficiaries of the AI investment cycle. Palantir’s government and enterprise AI platform business has driven significant share price appreciation, while AMD has captured market share in data center GPUs. Selling into strength is a classic ARK playbook move: take profits on positions that have run, and redeploy capital into names where the market hasn’t fully priced in the upside.

The Archer Aviation thesis

Archer Aviation is building the Midnight, an electric vertical takeoff and landing aircraft designed to operate as an air taxi in urban environments. The eVTOL sector has been long on promises and short on revenue for years. Archer has been working toward commercial operations with the Midnight prototype, and analysts appear to share some of ARK’s optimism. The consensus rating on Archer Aviation currently sits at Strong Buy.

What this rebalancing signals

For Archer Aviation specifically, having ARK as a 4.09% shareholder provides a certain floor of institutional credibility. It also means that ARK’s future buying or selling decisions will move the stock, creating a feedback loop that cuts both ways. If Wood ever reverses course on the position, the selling pressure on a mid-cap name with that level of concentration could be significant.