ARK vs Grizzly! "Wood Sister" supports eVTOL leader Archer.

When "Wood Sister" Cathie Wood's ARK Fund last clashed with the short-selling institution Grizzly Research, it suffered losses of tens of millions of dollars. This time, the two institutions are facing off again, starting a new round of competition.

ARK is actively acquiring shares of Archer Aviation, a company focused on developing air taxis. Currently, its investment in the company has reached about 10%, spread across multiple ETFs under its umbrella.

Archer is an electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) aircraft developer that launched eVTOL air taxi services in the U.S. last year and received certification from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). Archer Aviation has also found its first international launch partner in the "Middle Eastern tycoon" UAE.

For "Wood Sister" who is actively deploying investments in the "urban air transportation" sector, companies like Archer naturally have strong appeal.

However, Archer has also attracted Grizzly's attention. In August last year, Grizzly released a report on Archer, stating that the company's descriptions of its business and product readiness were misleading.

In response, Archer stated that some points in the report were "ridiculous" and emphasized that it is at the forefront of a potential trillion-dollar market, expecting to face scrutiny.

It is worth noting that this is not the first time ARK and Grizzly have held different views on investments in the future transportation sector. Previously, they had a direct confrontation over investments in the trucking autonomous driving company TuSimple. As a result, TuSimple was delisted from the U.S. stock market in February this year, causing heavy losses for ARK.

In August 2021, when Grizzly published a short report on TuSimple, ARK held TuSimple shares worth about $220 million and continued to increase its holdings after the stock price fell. Eventually, ARK sold most of its holdings at around $2 per share by the end of 2022, while before Grizzly's report, TuSimple's stock price was over $34.

As for Archer, its stock price has cumulatively dropped by about 30% since Grizzly's short report was released, although it also briefly rose by about 14% in volatile trading.

According to the analysis of ARK's daily trading reports, in the past month, ARK Fund purchased about 5.9 million shares of Archer, valued at approximately $25 million based on last Thursday's closing price. Chief Executive Officer Siegfried Eggert of Grizzly expressed via email:

"Archer's situation with TuSimple bears many similarities. We are somewhat surprised by ARK's aggressive purchasing behavior. It seems to us that ARK is trying to support the stock price rather than acquiring shares at a low price as much as possible."