ATAI Stock Slips After Blockbuster Week: Cathie Wood Calls $3.8B Lilly Deal ‘Well-Deserved’ Return For Shareholders

• Wood said the transaction validates Christian Angermayer’s long-term psychedelic medicine vision.
• Lilly will pay $6.75 per share, including $2.8 billion upfront and up to $1 billion in milestones.
• The deal centers on BPL-003, a late-stage nasal therapy for treatment-resistant depression.

ARK Investment Management founder-CEO Cathie Wood cheered Eli Lilly’s $3.8 billion AtaiBeckley acquisition on Sunday, calling it a “well-deserved” payoff for shareholders and a validation of Christian Angermayer’s psychedelic vision.

ATAI stock rose 1% on Friday, adding 40% over the past five sessions and marking its best week in more than a year. Shares, however, were dipping more than 1% in overnight trading heading into Monday.

Wood Calls ATAI Deal A Shareholder Win

Wood highlighted on X the biotech company’s role in bringing psychedelic medicines closer to mainstream clinical use: “Not only a well-deserved return for ATAI shareholders, this transaction validates Christian’s heartfelt mission and vision,” Wood said. She called Angermayer’s work with ATAI “one of the biggest catalysts of the psychedelic renaissance,” adding that clinical trials are increasingly validating the potential of psychedelics in treatment-resistant depression, post-traumatic stress disorder and broader mental health conditions.

Wood also credited Angermayer with backing the field long before psychedelic medicine became widely accepted, fashionable, or investable. “Long before psychedelics were accepted, fashionable, or investable, Christian’s life’s mission was to reactivate them and bring back hope and health for those who had lost both,” she said.

Wood’s praise came after ARK Invest reduced its ATAI stake last week. The ARK Genomic Revolution ETF (ARKG) sold 1.12 million ATAI shares worth about $6.02 million. As of Friday, however, ARKG still held 3.19 million shares valued at $22.78 million, or 1.4% of the fund. Lilly was also ARKG’s seventh-largest holding, with 61,258 shares worth $71.62 million and a 4.4% weighting. 

LLY Bets On Psychedelic Depression Therapy

Eli Lilly said last week that it would acquire AtaiBeckley for up to $3.8 billion for the psychedelic drug developer as it builds out its neuroscience pipeline. Under the deal, shareholders would receive $6.75 in cash per ATAI share, with Lilly committing $2.8 billion at closing and an additional $1 billion for future milestones. The deal marked a 26% premium to AtaiBeckley’s shareholders.

The companies are targeting completion of the acquisition in the third quarter of 2026. The centerpiece of the deal is BPL-003, an intranasal psychedelic therapy being tested in late-stage studies for treatment-resistant depression. Jefferies has projected that the drug could eventually generate $1 billion to $2 billion in sales if the program succeeds. AtaiBeckley has said the first late-stage data are expected in early 2029.

Angermayer reflected on the deal over the weekend in an X post, saying ATAI’s next phase is about commercialization rather than advocacy. “Ten years ago, psychedelics needed an evangelist. Today, they need commercialization,” he said. After first exploring psychedelics in 2014, Angermayer helped launch Compass Pathways and ATAI in 2017 and invested more than $100 million of his own capital in ATAI. The two companies later raised over $1.5 billion, went public and helped build clinical credibility for psychedelic medicine.

How Do Retail Traders Feel About ATAI?

On Stocktwits, retail sentiment for ATAI was ‘extremely bullish’ amid ‘extremely high’ message volume.

One user said, “$ATAI One dollar of the $2.50 CVR should be realized fairly soon. The only requirement is that VLS-01, now completing Phase 2, should begin a Phase 3 trial before the fourth anniversary of the deal. That could happen as early as next year. But the other $1.50 requires the approval and DEA rescheduling of both BPL-003 and VLS-01. That's going to take some time. They should have thrown in some milestone payments too.”

Another user noted, “$ATAI People are starting to buy more $8 calls (not a ton, 610… open interest is 1,748).”

ATAI stock has surged 159% over the past year, while LLY’s has risen 56% over the same period. 

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