ARK Invest, a global thematic exchange-traded funds issuer specialising in disruptive innovation with $30.2 billion assets under management, has released its annual research report: “Big Ideas 2025: Unlocking Exponential Growth Through Disruptive Innovation.” 

The world is on the cusp of exponential economic growth, driven by five converging innovation platforms: artificial Intelligence, robotics, energy storage, public blockchains, and multiomic sequencing, according to a new report by London-headquartered ARK Invest. These platforms should drive exponential advances across industries and catalyse a step change in global economic growth.  

The report highlights that these platforms are converging to create a catalytic shift in global productivity, driving breakthrough technologies that could radically redefine economic structures, investment landscapes, and societal progress. 

“ARK’s latest research unpacks how converging technologies are not just disrupting industries but reshaping global economic value chains,” Rahul Bhushan, global head of index at ARK Invest, said. “Investors who position themselves early in these high-growth themes have the opportunity to participate in the next era of transformative wealth creation."

Key themes that have emerged from the report and ARK’s research are outlined below.

Technological advances
Disruptive innovation could command more than two-thirds of the global equity market, compounding at a 38 per cent rate through 2030, the research shows. Within innovation, market value could broaden out beyond the so-called Magnificent 7 (Apple, Meta, Amazon, Microsoft, Nvidia, Alphabet, Tesla). Technological breakthroughs in artificial intelligence, autonomous mobility, and humanoid robots are also likely to turbocharge productivity again, causing another step function in growth over the next five to 10 years.

AI advances should also unlock market opportunities. Robotaxis should proliferate, drug development timelines and costs should collapse, and AI agents should solve software engineering challenges autonomously, monitoring and modifying systems around the clock.

Cryptocurrencies and blockchain
The report shows that bitcoin’s annual volatility has fallen to an all-time low, with bitcoin’s risk-adjusted returns remaining superior to most major asset classes. Seventy-four public companies now hold bitcoin on their balance sheet; the value on corporate balance sheets quintupled during the past year from $11 billion in 2023 to $55 billion. It is one of the fastest-growing segments in digital assets, with stablecoins overtaking Mastercard and Visa in transaction value in 2024, the report states. In 2024, the annualised transaction value of stablecoins hit $15.6 trillion, roughly 119 per cent and 200 per cent that of Visa and Mastercard, respectively.

Autonomous driving
In the early days, robotaxi companies are likely to price rides close to those for human-driven ride-hail. But with scale and increased use, the research shows that autonomous technology is likely to drive the cost per mile below that of personal vehicle travel from $1.10 for personal to $0.25 for robotaxis. 

The US and China are blazing the robotaxi trail. Price competition in China could continue to push local players into more lucrative partnerships abroad. Ride-hail could also create a $10 trillion market, the report adds. At $0.25 cents per mile, autonomous transportation could serve a much larger population than human-driven ride-hail does today. Meanwhile, based on how consumers value their time, demand could be significant even at higher price points.

Autonomous logistics
The report shows that autonomous vehicles could lower supply chain costs dramatically, creating more cost-effective last-mile delivery ecosystems. Autonomous delivery revenue could approach $900 billion globally in 2030, reshaping consumer buying habits.

Robotics
Generalisable robotics, both household and manufacturing robotics, represent a $26+ trillion global revenue opportunity, the report states. 3D printing revenues could grow 40 per cent annually, to $180 billion by 2030.

Multiomics
AI-driven drug development could reduce time-to-market by nearly 40 per cent, according to the research, while reducing total drug costs fourfold, from $2.4 billion to $0.6 billion.

(Multiomics provide an integrated approach to power discovery across multiple levels of biology. By combining data from genomics, transcriptomics, epigenetics, and proteomics, researchers can achieve a more comprehensive understanding of molecular changes contributing to normal development, cellular response, and disease.)

A tradition since 2017, Big Ideas is ARK’s seminal document, offering an analysis of technological convergence and its potential to revolutionise industries and economies at a global scale. The annual research report is the basis for ARK’s investment strategies but is also intended to provide education and knowledge, as it contains in-depth analyses of the most important investment themes conducted by ARK's investment team.