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Quarter	Letter Date	Fund Name	QTD	YTD	Tickers	Themes	Quick Take

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Sands Capital Select Growth Fund 2026 Q2 Investor Letter | Buyside Digest

Back to Fund Profile (Sands Capital Select Growth Fund)

Primary Source Intelligence • Q2 2026 Letter Analysis

Sands Capital Select Growth Fund Quarterly Analysis

Buyside Digest is not affiliated with, and does not endorse, Sands Capital Select Growth Fund. This analysis is provided for institutional research purposes only and is not investment advice.

Fund Returns

QTD+23.2%

YTD+7.2%

Annualized+12.3%

Positioning StanceNEUTRAL

Market CapLarge Cap

Digest Analysis

Quick Take

"Select Growth returned 23.2 percent in Q2 2026, outperforming on broad AI infrastructure strength. The portfolio benefited from accelerating demand for memory, storage, and data center power as agentic AI created new bottlenecks."

Executive Summary

Sands Capital Select Growth returned 23.2 percent net in Q2 2026, outperforming the Russell 1000 Growth Index's 16.7 percent return, driven by broad-based strength across AI infrastructure holdings. The portfolio benefited from accelerating demand for memory, storage, semiconductor manufacturing, and data center power as agentic AI created new bottlenecks across the technology stack. Top contributors included Seagate Technology, Taiwan Semiconductor, Lam Research, NVIDIA, and Carpenter Technology, reflecting the broadening of AI infrastructure demand beyond GPUs. Importantly, earnings revisions, not multiple expansion, supported gains, with the portfolio ending the quarter at 24.0 times forward earnings, slightly below the market multiple. The team initiated positions in Advanced Micro Devices, Bloom Energy, Micron Technology, SanDisk, SpaceX, and Sphere Entertainment, while exiting DoorDash, Netflix, Nu Holdings, and Roblox to reduce consumer internet exposure and redeploy capital toward AI infrastructure beneficiaries. The portfolio is positioned across several bottlenecks essential to scaling AI, including memory, CPUs, AI chips, semiconductor manufacturing, capital equipment, and power, where supply cannot respond quickly to rising demand.

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Institutional Meta Strategy

Meta Strategy Gauges

Algorithmic conviction, macroeconomic posture, and risk appetite signals extracted from this quarterly letter with qualitative explanations.

Signal Matrix

Market Conviction

82%

CautiousHigh

High Conviction (82%)

The portfolio is highly concentrated with only 30 businesses, and the top ten holdings represent 54 percent of assets. The manager names specific positions, sizes them explicitly (e.g., NVIDIA at 10.7 percent, Taiwan Semi at 6.4 percent), and provides clear, falsifiable catalysts with specific timeframes. The letter demonstrates strong conviction through active position sizing, willingness to add on pullbacks, and declarative language about thesis durability. The explanation cites specific holdings and their roles in the AI infrastructure stack, with minimal hedging on core positions. This is high conviction, though not at the extreme 0.90+ level reserved for single-thesis funds.

Growth Outlook

65%

BearishBullish

Bullish (65%)

The manager is constructive on markets, noting that corporate earnings were a key driver with S&P 500 earnings growing 29 percent, the strongest pace since Q4 2021. However, the manager acknowledges elevated geopolitical and macroeconomic uncertainty, narrow market breadth, and elevated momentum exposure. The outlook is positive but balanced with risk awareness, placing it in the mildly positive to meaningfully bullish range.

Risk Appetite

70%

DefensiveAggressive

Balanced (70%)

The portfolio is actively positioned with high conviction in AI infrastructure, having used the May pullback to add exposure to memory, CPUs, and data center power. The manager initiated six new positions and exited four, demonstrating active deployment and a clear tilt toward risk in AI infrastructure beneficiaries. This reflects a net long, selectively adding posture with a clear risk-on bias in specific areas.

Capital Deployment

45%

De-riskingDeploying

Net Neutral (45%)

The manager initiated six new positions (AMD, Bloom Energy, Micron, SanDisk, SpaceX, Sphere) and exited four (DoorDash, Netflix, Nu Holdings, Roblox), representing active rotation rather than net deployment. Cash ended at 3.4 percent, and while the letter describes using the May pullback to add positions, this appears to be funded by sales rather than reducing cash. The activity reflects capital rotation and selective deployment, scoring in the moderate deployment range but not aggressive given the lack of evidence of significant cash reduction.

Forward Guidance

55%

CautiousExpansionary

Neutral (55%)

The manager is actively deploying into AI infrastructure bottlenecks and expects the proliferation of agentic AI workflows to drive persistent constraints in compute capacity. However, the manager also notes they are closely monitoring developments that could change the outlook, including competition from lower-cost open-source models and usage rationalization. This reflects selective deployment with some hedging, placing it in the meaningfully bullish range but not at the highest levels.

Language Signal

60%

BearishBullish

Balanced (60%)

The letter contains predominantly bullish language around AI infrastructure opportunities, bottlenecks, durable earnings growth, and favorable economics. Terms like 'robust demand,' 'sustained demand,' 'durable earnings cycle,' and 'attractive margins' dominate. However, the manager also discusses risks including momentum unwinds, narrow breadth, and potential AI disruption to some holdings. The net balance is more bullish than bearish, but not overwhelmingly so.

Perceived Risk

55%

Low RiskElevated

Moderate Risk (55%)

The manager identifies several specific risks with meaningful discussion: geopolitical tensions, narrow market breadth, elevated momentum exposure, periodic momentum unwinds, competition from lower-cost open-source models, usage rationalization, and potential architectural breakthroughs that reduce compute intensity. These risks are named and discussed but not presented as systemic or alarming. The manager frames them as factors to monitor rather than reasons to de-risk. This places perceived risk in the moderate range, above the minimal acknowledgment level but below the high systemic risk level.

Opportunity Density

75%

ScarceAbundant

Abundant (75%)

The manager sees a rich opportunity set within AI infrastructure, initiating six new positions in the quarter and describing multiple bottlenecks across memory, CPUs, semiconductor manufacturing, capital equipment, and power. The letter emphasizes that AI infrastructure demand is broadening across the stack, creating opportunities in several enabling technologies. While the manager reduced exposure to consumer internet, this reflects selectivity rather than scarcity. The overall tone suggests abundant opportunities in defined areas, placing it in the selective to rich range.

Time Horizon

72%

Short-TermLong-Term

Decade+ (72%)

The strategy explicitly states an expected holding period of 5+ years and describes the intent to own businesses for five years or longer. The manager discusses multi-year themes like the aerospace production recovery, durable earnings cycles in memory, and long-term AI infrastructure buildout. However, the letter also focuses on near-term catalysts like quarterly earnings, capital expenditure expectations for 2026, and specific product launches. The combination of long-term structural themes with near-term milestone tracking places the time horizon in the multi-year range, above medium-term but below the permanent capital level.