Cathie Wood Is Buying Rocket Lab Again: Why 3 ARK ETFs Are Betting on Neutron

Cathie Wood’s ARK Invest is doubling down on Rocket Lab Corp. (NASDAQ:RKLB), adding 233,482 shares worth about $16.3 million across three ETFs on Thursday.

The latest purchase takes ARK’s Rocket Lab buying since Sep. 22 to roughly 593,000 shares worth more than $41 million, according to ARK trade data. The purchases span the flagship ARK Innovation ETF (BATS:ARKK), ARK Autonomous Technology & Robotics ETF (BATS:ARKQ) and ARK Space & Defense Innovation ETF (BATS:ARKX).

The concentration is particularly notable in ARKX, where Rocket Lab is already among the fund’s largest holdings, accounting for about 6.07% of the portfolio.

Rocket Lab’s Backlog Is Expanding

ARK’s latest buying comes as Rocket Lab’s operating momentum accelerates.

The company reported record second-quarter revenue of $234 million, up 62% year over year, while backlog reached $2.36 billion, a 137% increase from a year earlier. Rocket Lab also secured more than 90 launches in its backlog at the end of the quarter.

That backlog expanded further this week after Japanese satellite operator Synspective agreed to buy 20 additional Electron launches, scheduled annually from 2028 through 2031. The deal takes Synspective’s total contracted Rocket Lab missions to 47 and pushes Rocket Lab’s overall launch backlog beyond 100 missions.

The Bigger ETF Bet Is Neutron

The longer-term thesis goes beyond Electron.

Rocket Lab is developing Neutron, a reusable medium-lift rocket aimed at larger commercial, constellation and national-security missions. Success with Neutron could expand the addressable market well beyond Rocket Lab’s current small-launch business.

At the same time, ARK trimmed Palantir Technologies (NASDAQ:PLTR) by about $3.95 million on Thursday through ARKQ and ARKX.

That does not establish that ARK is abandoning Palantir. But the latest transactions show fresh capital flowing toward Rocket Lab as the space company builds a growing launch backlog and prepares for its next phase of growth.

For ETF investors, the key takeaway is that RKLB is no longer simply a space bet inside ARKX. It is simultaneously being positioned as an innovation, autonomous-technology and space-and-defense holding across three ARK strategies.

This structure keeps the ETF exposure and capital flows at the center while using Rocket Lab’s fundamentals to explain why the trades matter.

Photo: Ark Invest