Top US investor slams Britain for lack of tech champions

Superstar fund manager Cathie Wood has taken a swipe at the UK, saying capital markets are not ‘deep enough’ to create a tech giant.

Wood, who runs fund firm Ark Investment Management, has sounded alarm bells over Britain’s investment landscape compared with the US.

‘Your educational system is exemplary and yet I think what happens is that your capital markets are not deep enough – or incentivised enough,’ she told the BBC’s Today programme.

‘In the US, we are big advocates of tax incentives for innovation – encouraging founders to take risks,’ she added.

Wood is best known for making big bets on cutting-edge companies and was touted as one of Wall Street’s best stock pickers during the pandemic.

Top selector: Cathie Wood is best known for betting on cutting-edge tech companies

But her comments add to the ongoing criticism that the UK market is falling behind international rivals.

While government supports start-ups through grants and funding programmes, the US has a larger pool of investors and offers tax breaks to budding entrepreneurs. Companies also tend to secure larger valuations across the Atlantic.

The UK tech scene has also come under pressure in the face of several high-profile setbacks.

Britishvolt failed to get off the ground last year – delivering a major blow to those who hoped the project would turn the UK into a global leader in electric vehicle battery production. 

The owner of bookmaker Paddy Power Flutter also switched its primary listing to New York earlier this year, and the UK chip designer Arm opted to list on Wall Street last August after the Government failed to convince it to float in London.

Others are also set to abandon the UK after being taken over. FTSE 100 group Hargreaves Lansdown recently accepted a £5.4billion takeover from a consortium including Abu Dhabi’s sovereign wealth fund, and cyber-security group Darktrace backed a £4.6billion takeover by US private equity firm Thoma Bravo.

Despite the problems facing the country, Wood, 68, said ‘some of the greatest companies have come out of the UK’ and there was ‘fertile ground’ for change.

Her comments also come in the same week that US chipmaker Nvidia posted its latest set of record results. The second-quarter figures, released on Wednesday, showed profits surged 168 per cent to £12.6billion and sales jumped 122 per cent to £22.8billion.

In February, it became the fastest company to go from a $1 trillion to a $2 trillion stock market valuation. Today, with a valuation of more than $3 trillion, it is ensconced within the elite band of US tech stocks.