Capital at risk

Investment strategy

US Equity Growth

The US is a wonderfully inefficient market. It’s also the global capital for growth firms.

We seek exceptional companies for long-term, concentrated growth. Diversification dilutes the best opportunities. Just 90 companies generated half of the US stock market’s $35tn in wealth creation over 90 years.

The downside is limited to the value invested, but the upside is open-ended.

A colourful semi cicle of neon lights with lines of blue dots flaring out from the centre.

We seek to harness the power of the outliers

We are in a period of unprecedented change and innovation. A small set of exceptional companies in the US is driving global change. This makes it an extremely exciting time to invest in high-growth US businesses.

View transcript (1MB)

US Equity Growth: our philosophy

Investment manager Tom Slater introduces US Equity Growth, reflecting on the exciting opportunities ahead.

Owning the exceptional for a long, long time

Our objective is to deliver more than 2 per cent above the market, either the Russell 1000 Growth Index or broader S&P 500 per anum, over rolling five-year periods, by investing in a concentrated portfolio of transformational growth companies.

We believe this to be a reasonable estimate of the amount by which we can outperform the market in the long term, considering the opportunity set and the unique cultures of the US companies we invest in.

We focus on a small number of companies that can drive returns over the next decade. This requires bravery and imagination. Obsessing over upside and unmatched patience is our edge.

The performance target is aspirational and is not guaranteed. We don’t use it to compile the portfolio and returns will vary. A single performance target may not be appropriate across all vehicles and jurisdictions. We may not meet our investment objectives if, for example, our growth investment style is out of favour or we misjudge the long-term earnings growth of our holdings.

Transformational innovation and disruption

We are investing in the future and aim to be on the right side of innovative disruption. The index, on the other hand, is backwards looking. That’s why our overlap with the market is low (typically less than 15 per cent).

The portfolio gives exposure to important structural changes in society that transcend short-term cycles, meaning it behaves differently from the index.

Innovation is at the heart of what we do. We seek out companies that are disrupting industries, creating new markets and changing the world for the better.

The opportunity to invest in truly innovative, disruptive companies is greater today than ever before, and the long-term growth potential of these companies is huge.

Tom Slater

Meet the managers

Documents

Philosophy and process

Explore our investment philosophy and the processes around how the team constructs the portfolio.

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Quarterly update

Get the latest investment commentary, portfolio overview, transactions and performance information alongside governance engagement and voting.

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Invest in this strategy

You can invest in this strategy through the following fund(s).

View Worldwide US Equity Growth Fund

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Strategy portfolio holdings

A list of the top 10 holdings that the representative portfolio invests in.

All figures up to: 30 April 2026

#	Company	Fund %
1	Amazon.com	10.0%
2	NVIDIA	8.6%
3	Alphabet Inc Class A	5.7%
4	Meta Platforms Inc	5.1%
5	Broadcom Inc	4.3%
6	Doordash Inc	4.0%
7	Shopify 'A'	3.8%
8	Cloudflare Inc	3.7%
9	The Ensign Group	3.5%
10	Watsco Inc	3.3%

Strategy holdings by sector

All figures up to: 30 April 2026

Total: 100%

Please note

The information contained on this page is intended as a guide only and should not be relied upon when making investment decisions. All holdings information is unaudited. Source Baillie Gifford & Co. Please note that totals may not add due to rounding.

Invest in this strategy

You can invest in this strategy through the following fund(s).

View Worldwide US Equity Growth Fund

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Curious to learn more about our products and what we can offer you? Please get in touch.

Start a conversation

Insights

Key articles, videos and podcasts relating to the strategy:

View transcript

Your capital is at risk. Past performance is not a guide to future returns. The following update is based on a representative portfolio. As such, stock examples may not be held in every client portfolio, and performance may differ. Philip Rae: There is a clear sense of unease and uncertainty driving market sentiment right now. The S&P 500, the leading index for America’s stock market, was down around 2.5 percent in sterling terms over this quarter. Beneath the headline number, two narratives have driven a large divergence in returns. First, geopolitics. The conflict in the Middle East drove energy prices sharply higher, and we have very little exposure to energy, so relative performance suffered in the short term. Second, and more significant for us, there was a broad sell-off in software and anything perceived as digital or AI-adjacent. To put this in perspective, software has suffered its worst sell-off in 30 years and now trades at the same valuation level as the wider market. Against this backdrop, the portfolio underperformed, declining around 18 percent. We know our clients are disappointed with that short-run performance, and we share that disappointment. Unfortunately, the strong returns since the end of 2022 have been interrupted. Within the portfolio, two holdings stood out as detractors. Food delivery leader DoorDash executed well and growth was strong, but increased investment pushed profitability in newer areas like grocery and retail further out. The market treated that as a disappointment. Real estate business CoStar reflects another kind of impatience: the market’s focus on near-term margins as it reinvests for its next phase of growth. Homes.com has weighed on profitability. But with deep proprietary data, a proven playbook, and a strong financial position, we believe its edge is underestimated. What stands in sharp contrast to the delivered returns, I would highlight two things. First, strong fundamentals. Growth has remained robust, and profitability across the portfolio has improved. Companies have strong balance sheets and cash flows to reinvest in their businesses. Adding to that is what we are hearing from companies. Shopify’s founder, Tobi Lütke, is energised by the extraordinary benefits that generative AI is bringing to their business. Shopify has moved incredibly quickly to embed AI across its operations, from merchant tools to products like Sidekick, a digital co-founder that helps merchants run their businesses. They see agentic commerce as expanding their market, rather than disrupting it. On top of that, this is a company that is leaner, more efficient, and still growing 30 percent year on year. Looking more closely at our software exposure, we see evidence of competitive advantages being expanded. Cloudflare’s networking and security offering becomes more important in an AI world. As traffic on its network becomes increasingly autonomous through AI agents, Cloudflare sits at a critical control point, providing governance and building trust and reliability into the system. Early signs are positive: Cloudflare saw AI agent traffic on its network double over the month of January alone. Our view is that AI does not destroy value — it is actually redistributing it. Our job as long-term investors is to own the businesses where that value is likely to increase over time. The other thing to note is just how far valuations have compressed. On both a price-to-sales and price-to-earnings basis, the portfolio has not been this inexpensive relative to the S&P 500 since before 2015. That gap between narrative and fundamentals feels unusually wide. I hope that adds not only a degree of reassurance, but that you might share our excitement about a strong setup for future returns from this point: attractive growth now trading at much lower valuations. We used the current market dislocation to start a position in Axon Enterprises. Axon supports public safety agencies and law enforcement. Its body cameras capture video evidence to improve trust throughout the justice process. The company’s position is anchored in real-world hardware, enabling it to capture proprietary data at the source. As an example, its footage helps automate and cut the time spent by police on report writing by 50 percent, saving valuable and scarce officer time. It is important to note that the portfolio is much broader than tech and AI. We have increased the exposure to enduring growth names. We added a new holding in RBC Bearings. This is a highly specialised industrial business with deep customer relationships and niche products critical to the aerospace, defence, and industrial systems. The investment adds greater diversification, complementing other enduring holdings like skilled-nursing facility operator Ensign, or aggregates business Knife River. As we look across our holdings broadly, we see little reason to be concerned about their prospects. Companies are in good shape and growing strongly. Average 2026 revenue growth across the portfolio is around 20 percent. Valuations have compressed to levels we have not seen for some time, and we are genuinely excited about the opportunity ahead from here. Thanks for your time today and your patience with performance. I hope you found this update useful, and we look forward to talking with you again next quarter.   <h3 class="TABLEHEADER1212pt">US Equity Growth</h3> Annual past performance to 31 March each year (%) <table border="1" style="border-collapse: collapse; width: 100%; border-width: 0px; height: 74px;"> <tbody> <tr style="height: 18.5px;"> <td style="border-width: 1px 1px 2px; border-style: solid; border-color: rgb(204, 204, 204) rgb(204, 204, 204) rgb(0, 0, 0); border-image: initial; padding: 10px; height: 18.5px;"> </td> <td style="border-width: 1px 1px 2px; border-style: solid; border-color: rgb(204, 204, 204) rgb(204, 204, 204) rgb(0, 0, 0); border-image: initial; padding: 10px; height: 18.5px;">2022</td> <td style="border-width: 1px 1px 2px; border-style: solid; border-color: rgb(204, 204, 204) rgb(204, 204, 204) rgb(0, 0, 0); border-image: initial; padding: 10px; height: 18.5px;">2023</td> <td style="border-width: 1px 1px 2px; border-style: solid; border-color: rgb(204, 204, 204) rgb(204, 204, 204) rgb(0, 0, 0); border-image: initial; padding: 10px; height: 18.5px;">2024</td> <td style="border-width: 1px 1px 2px; border-style: solid; border-color: rgb(204, 204, 204) rgb(204, 204, 204) rgb(0, 0, 0); border-image: initial; padding: 10px; height: 18.5px;">2025</td> <td style="border-width: 1px 1px 2px; border-style: solid; border-color: rgb(204, 204, 204) rgb(204, 204, 204) rgb(0, 0, 0); border-image: initial; padding: 10px; height: 18.5px;">2026</td> </tr> <tr style="height: 18.5px;"> <td style="border: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); padding: 10px; height: 18.5px;">US Growth Composite (gross)</td> <td style="border: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); padding: 10px; height: 18.5px;">-27.9</td> <td style="border: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); padding: 10px; height: 18.5px;">-29.0</td> <td style="border: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); padding: 10px; height: 18.5px;">35.9</td> <td style="border: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); padding: 10px; height: 18.5px;">9.1</td> <td style="border: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); padding: 10px; height: 18.5px;">3.7</td> </tr> <tr style="height: 18.5px;"> <td style="border: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); padding: 10px; height: 18.5px;">US Growth Composite (net)</td> <td style="border: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); padding: 10px; height: 18.5px;">-28.2</td> <td style="border: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); padding: 10px; height: 18.5px;">-29.3</td> <td style="border: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); padding: 10px; height: 18.5px;">35.2</td> <td style="border: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); padding: 10px; height: 18.5px;">8.6</td> <td style="border: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); padding: 10px; height: 18.5px;">3.2</td> </tr> <tr style="height: 18.5px;"> <td style="border: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); padding: 10px; height: 18.5px;">S&P 500 Index</td> <td style="border: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); padding: 10px; height: 18.5px;">15.6</td> <td style="border: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); padding: 10px; height: 18.5px;">-7.7</td> <td style="border: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); padding: 10px; height: 18.5px;">29.9</td> <td style="border: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); padding: 10px; height: 18.5px;">8.3</td> <td style="border: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); padding: 10px; height: 18.5px;">17.8</td> </tr> </tbody> </table>   Annualised returns to 31 March 2026 (%) <table border="1" style="border-collapse: collapse; width: 100%; border-width: 0px; height: 92.5px;"> <tbody> <tr style="height: 37px;"> <td style="border-width: 1px 1px 2px; border-style: solid; border-color: rgb(204, 204, 204) rgb(204, 204, 204) rgb(0, 0, 0); border-image: initial; padding: 10px; height: 37px; width: 61.3387%;"> </td> <td style="border-width: 1px 1px 2px; border-style: solid; border-color: rgb(204, 204, 204) rgb(204, 204, 204) rgb(0, 0, 0); border-image: initial; padding: 10px; height: 37px; width: 13.1043%;">1 year</td> <td style="border-width: 1px 1px 2px; border-style: solid; border-color: rgb(204, 204, 204) rgb(204, 204, 204) rgb(0, 0, 0); border-image: initial; padding: 10px; height: 37px; width: 12.713%;">5 years</td> <td style="border-width: 1px 1px 2px; border-style: solid; border-color: rgb(204, 204, 204) rgb(204, 204, 204) rgb(0, 0, 0); border-image: initial; padding: 10px; height: 37px; width: 12.844%;">10 years</td> </tr> <tr style="height: 18.5px;"> <td style="border: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); padding: 10px; height: 18.5px; width: 61.3387%;">US Growth Composite (gross)</td> <td style="border: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); padding: 10px; height: 18.5px; width: 13.1043%;">3.7</td> <td style="border: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); padding: 10px; height: 18.5px; width: 12.713%;">-4.7</td> <td style="border: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); padding: 10px; height: 18.5px; width: 12.844%;">14.3</td> </tr> <tr style="height: 18.5px;"> <td style="border: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); padding: 10px; height: 18.5px; width: 61.3387%;">US Growth Composite (net)</td> <td style="border: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); padding: 10px; height: 18.5px; width: 13.1043%;">3.2</td> <td style="border: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); padding: 10px; height: 18.5px; width: 12.713%;">-5.1</td> <td style="border: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); padding: 10px; height: 18.5px; width: 12.844%;">13.7</td> </tr> <tr style="height: 18.5px;"> <td style="border: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); padding: 10px; height: 18.5px; width: 61.3387%;">S&P 500 Index</td> <td style="border: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); padding: 10px; height: 18.5px; width: 13.1043%;">17.8</td> <td style="border: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); padding: 10px; height: 18.5px; width: 12.713%;">12.1</td> <td style="border: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); padding: 10px; height: 18.5px; width: 12.844%;">14.2</td> </tr> </tbody> </table> Source: Revolution, S&P. US dollars. Net returns have been calculated by reducing the gross return by the highest annual management fee for the composite. 1 year figures are not annualised.                       Past performance is not a guide to future returns.                      Legal notice: The S&P 500 Index is a product of S&P Dow Jones Indices LLC, a division of S&P Global, or its affiliates (“SPDJI”). Standard & Poor’s® and S&P® are registered trademarks of Standard & Poor’s Financial Services LLC, a division of S&P Global (“S&P”); Dow Jones® is a registered trademark of Dow Jones Trademark Holdings LLC (“Dow Jones”). Neither S&P Dow Jones Indices LLC, Dow Jones Trademark Holdings LLC, their affiliates nor their third party licensors make any representation or warranty, express or implied, as to the ability of any index to accurately represent the asset class or market sector that it purports to represent and neither S&P Dow Jones Indices LLC, Dow Jones Trademark Holdings LLC, their affiliates nor their third party licensors shall have any liability for any errors, omissions, or interruptions of any index or the data included therein. Risk factors     This communication was produced and approved in April 2026 and has not been updated subsequently. It represents views held at the time and may not reflect current thinking. The views expressed should not be considered as advice or a recommendation to buy, sell or hold a particular investment. They reflect opinion and should not be taken as statements of fact nor should any reliance be placed on them when making investment decisions. This communication contains information on investments which does not constitute independent research. Accordingly, it is not subject to the protections afforded to independent research, but is classified as advertising under Art 68 of the Financial Services Act (‘FinSA’) and Baillie Gifford and its staff may have dealt in the investments concerned. All information is sourced from Baillie Gifford & Co and is current unless otherwise stated.  The images used in this communication are for illustrative purposes only. Important information Baillie Gifford & Co and Baillie Gifford & Co Limited are authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA). Baillie Gifford & Co Limited is an Authorised Corporate Director of OEICs. Baillie Gifford Overseas Limited provides investment management and advisory services to non-UK Professional/Institutional clients only. Baillie Gifford Overseas Limited is wholly owned by Baillie Gifford & Co. Baillie Gifford & Co and Baillie Gifford Overseas Limited are authorised and regulated by the FCA in the UK.  Persons resident or domiciled outside the UK should consult with their professional advisers as to whether they require any governmental or other consents in order to enable them to invest, and with their tax advisers for advice relevant to their own particular circumstances. Financial intermediaries This communication is suitable for use of financial intermediaries. Financial intermediaries are solely responsible for any further distribution and Baillie Gifford takes no responsibility for the reliance on this document by any other person who did not receive this document directly from Baillie Gifford.

US Equity Growth Q1 update

Investment specialist Philip Rae reflects on recent performance, portfolio changes and market developments.

Invest in this strategy

You can invest in this strategy through the following fund(s).

View Worldwide US Equity Growth Fund

Explore further

Curious to learn more about our products and what we can offer you? Please get in touch.

Start a conversation

How to invest in this strategy

You can invest in this strategy through the following fund(s).

View Worldwide US Equity Growth Fund

Explore further

Curious to learn more about our products and what we can offer you? Please get in touch.

Start a conversation

Important information

Please remember that all investment strategies have the potential for profit and loss and your or your clients’ capital may be at risk.

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US Equity Growth

We seek to harness the power of the outliers

US Equity Growth: our philosophy

Owning the exceptional for a long, long time

Transformational innovation and disruption

Meet the managers

Tom Slater

Gary Robinson

Kirsty Gibson

Dave Bujnowski

Lillian Li

Documents

Philosophy and process

Quarterly update

Invest in this strategy

Explore further

Strategy portfolio holdings

Strategy holdings by sector

Please note

Invest in this strategy

Explore further

Insights

Filters

Insights

Why American culture feels so chaotic

US Perspectives: notes from the road

AI agents: why 2025 rewrote the AI timeline

Cultivating uncertainty

US Equity Growth Q1 investor letter

US Perspectives: fear, fundamentals and fortitude

US Equity Growth Q1 update

US Perspectives: AI-immunity and The Acronym Fallacy

AI is coming for your mind

US Perspectives: is AI eating software?

US Perspectives: what really matters?

The Long View

US Equity Growth Q4 investor letter

US Equity Growth Q4 update

Yarak: culture in the age of AI

US Perspectives: are we in an era of commercial diplomacy?

The world is about to get ‘weird’

Amazon: Stock Story

US Perspectives: are we in an AI bubble?

Fragmenting systems, cultural change

US Perspectives: AI breaks the internet

US Equity Growth Q3 update

US Equity Growth Q3 investor letter

US Perspectives: things are getting weird, quickly

Cultural architects

US Perspectives: stablecoin summer

US Equity Growth Q2 investor letter

US Equity Growth Q2 update

US Perspectives: infrastructure, the invisible opportunity

Actual investing revisited

US Perspectives: comfortable in discomfort

Alnylam: Stock Story

US Perspectives: the retail ecosystem

US Equity Growth Q1 update

US Equity Growth Q1 investor letter

Cloudflare: Stock Story

Why ants, scaffolding and long jumps matter to growth investors

Joby Aviation readies for take-off

US perspectives: AI evolves again

The concentration conundrum: challenge or opportunity?

US Equity Growth Q4 update

US Equity Growth Q4 investor letter

Upfront: US equities

Eric Beinhocker: evolutionary economist

Why technical leaders have an advantage

The rise of cloud computing

Streamlined for success

Moderna: designing drugs on a computer

Why growth, why now?

US Equity Growth Strategy

What’s next for growth stocks?

Why 'what if...' is the most vital question for investors

Defining impact

The long view

US Equity Growth Webinar: The Long View

US Equities: manager insights