Big Ideas 2026 is ARK Invest’s 10th annual flagship research report on the technologies reshaping the global economy.
This report draws on ARK’s research across both public and private markets to help investors, business leaders, and decision-makers see what’s next before it becomes obvious.
The future doesn’t arrive all at once.
Those who recognize it early have the opportunity to Own What’s Next.
About The Great Acceleration
Driven by AI, today’s technology investment cycle could prove to be the biggest in history. As technologies co-accelerate, economic growth could transform, leading to high single digits real growth by the end of the decade.
About AI Infrastructure
AI is triggering a new infrastructure buildout. As data center investment accelerates and compute becomes increasingly specialized, the foundations of the digital economy are being rebuilt at scale.
Authors
Frank Downing
Jozef Soja
About The AI Consumer Operating System
AI is rapidly becoming the consumer operating system, collapsing how people discover, decide, and transact. As intelligent agents take over commerce, the implications for adoption, revenue, and market power could be significant.
Authors
Nicholas Grous
Varshika Prasanna
About AI Productivity
AI is rapidly becoming embedded in everyday work, delivering immediate productivity gains and reshaping how software is built, sold, and used. As adoption accelerates across industries, the economics of labor and enterprise spending may be entering a new era of growth.
Authors
Nicholas Grous
Varshika Prasanna
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About Bitcoin
As institutional ownership grows, bitcoin is showing signs of structural maturity and is evolving as a global store of value. Even as the sources of demand shift, the long-term opportunity remains intact.
About Tokenized Assets
As finance moves on-chain, stablecoins and tokenization are rapidly scaling beyond payments into core capital markets. A small number of blockchain networks are emerging as the financial infrastructure layer for this shift.
Authors
Lorenzo Valente
Raye Hadi
About DeFi Applications
Crypto-native financial platforms are scaling into global institutions, matching incumbents in assets, efficiency, and revenue. As value concentrates at the application layer, new economic models are emerging across the crypto stack.
Authors
Lorenzo Valente
Raye Hadi
About Multiomics
Biology is entering a data-driven era. As AI and multiomics reinforce one another, discovery is accelerating, precision is improving, and the economics of healthcare are beginning to reset.
Authors
Shea Wihlborg, PhD
Brett Winton
About Reusable Rockets
Reusable rockets have pushed space into an exponential cost curve, dramatically lowering the price of orbit and accelerating satellite deployment. As launch becomes routine, space-based infrastructure is emerging as a meaningful extension of the global economy.
Authors
Daniel Maguire, ACA
Sam Korus
About Robotics
General-purpose automation is approaching an inflection point. As robots move from narrow tasks to open-ended capability, the scale of economic impact could be far larger than prior automation waves.
Authors
Sam Korus
Akaash TK
About Distributed Energy
As compute demand accelerates, energy is becoming the critical constraint. Falling power and storage costs suggest the next wave of economic growth may be powered by a massive expansion of low-cost electricity.
Authors
Daniel Maguire, ACA
Sam Korus
Akaash TK
About Autonomous Vehicles
Transportation may be on the verge of a reset. When vehicles drive themselves and operate continuously, the economics of mobility could change by orders of magnitude.
Authors
Tasha Keeney, CFA
Daniel Maguire, ACA
About Autonomous Logistics
Autonomous delivery is already happening at scale. As data compounds and costs fall, logistics may be entering a new efficiency curve that reshapes how goods move and how consumers buy.
Authors
Tasha Keeney, CFA
Daniel Maguire, ACA