Ark's Cathie Wood is betting Elon Musk will turn Twitter into a 'super app'

LISBON, Portugal — Ark Invest laminitis Cathie Wood thinks Elon Musk mightiness beryllium onto thing with his imaginativeness for Twitter.

"He's reasoning astir a ace app similar WeChat Pay," Wood said astatine the Web Summit exertion league successful Lisbon, Portugal, Wednesday.

Wood was referring to the integer payments work of Chinese messaging app WeChat. It is utilized often successful China for things similar instant messaging, societal media and payments.

WeChat has been touted arsenic the archetype of a improvement known arsenic "super apps." These apps enactment arsenic all-in-one platforms that service a scope of idiosyncratic needs spanning instant messaging, banking and travel.

Tesla CEO Musk has already hinted astatine plans to marque Twitter a ace app. Last month, helium tweeted that buying Twitter was an "accelerant to creating X, the everything app."

"Remember [Musk] started successful the payments manufacture ... helium sold his institution to PayPal," Wood said. "He and [Twitter co-founder] Jack Dorsey moving together, I think, could crook this into a ace app."

Twitter could successful aboriginal look much similar a integer wallet, Wood said: "So you bash each your banking there, possibly there's thing they're doing with Cash App," the online payments app developed by Dorsey's fintech steadfast Square.

"You bash each your buying there, you get your loans determination — it's your slope subdivision successful a pocket," she added. "I deliberation they tin get this done."

Wood, a noted Tesla bull, said Ark has invested successful Twitter arsenic portion of Musk's $44 cardinal woody to instrumentality the institution private.

"[Musk] genuinely believes successful vertical integration," she said, adding Twitter "would beryllium a magnificent vertical integration."

"He already has designed and is manufacturing the eventual mobile device, the net connected wheels — it's called Tesla cars," she added.

Still, Musk's takeover of the steadfast is the taxable of significant scrutiny by regulators and civilian rights activists who fearfulness helium whitethorn let harmful contented to proliferate.

Addressing these concerns, Wood said the "darkness" of Twitter was successful its "opacity" astir contented moderation decisions. "We didn't spot the algorithms and however they were working," she said.

She added she thinks Musk could crook Twitter into open-source software, wherever the codification tin beryllium reviewed, modified and shared by the public.