Cathie Wood was in familiar territory. She was listening to someone tell her she was wrong.

It was February 2018. Ms. Wood, a veteran money manager and the chief executive of Ark Invest, was on a panel on CNBC with the Canadian entrepreneur Kevin O’Leary, who is best known as Mr. Wonderful on the business-related reality show “Shark Tank.”

The topic was Tesla, and the two did not agree. At the time, Tesla shares were trading just below record-high levels, even though the company was facing one of the roughest patches in its history. Its stock was indefensibly expensive compared with those of other automakers, Mr. O’Leary argued. As giants like General Motors entered the electric vehicle business, the premium that Tesla’s shares commanded from investors was bound to shrink.

“No,” said Ms. Wood, the only female investor on the panel that day, after hearing Mr. O’Leary out. She then rattled off all the reasons Elon Musk’s company was different. G.M. doesn’t have the software engineers, distribution network or battery technology that Tesla has. In the future, software, artificial intelligence and automaking would converge. Tesla was ready for that.

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