Key points
- Physical and digital worlds are fusing, reshaping how ideas form, how decisions are made and how value is created over time
- Shifts in technology and society are fragmenting markets and creating new paths for growth
- Our commitment is to find those businesses that have the potential to deliver exceptional returns for clients over the long term
As with any investment, your capital is at risk.
We are living through a period in which the world is being reshaped by technology and societal shifts - an era of synthesis. We seek to bring together different voices and ideas, blending insight with optimism, to have the courage and judgement to find the beneficiaries of this new order.
Our task is to navigate the noise while maintaining a simple aim: to be outstanding long-term, active growth investors and to evolve alongside our clients.
A bar in San Francisco brings this concept to life. The Interval is part cocktail lounge, part library and ideas salon. Its shelves hold books on slow revolutions, systems thinking, biology, climate and innovation. It brings together people who would not normally meet to exchange ideas.
It is also the home of the Long Now Foundation, a non-profit organisation that Baillie Gifford has supported for many years. At the back of the bar stands a prototype of a clock designed to run for 10,000 years, roughly the span of modern civilisation.
For us, it is a useful metaphor for patience, imagination and endurance. Today’s reality was once an unimaginable future, and the decisions we make now will matter far beyond the ups and downs of the next round of market fluctuations.
That is how we approach investing. At its best, investing means committing capital today in ways that should still make sense and matter decades from now.
It calls for engagement with complexity and listening to diverse voices. It also means backing ideas that may not yet be fashionable but could prove fundamental for savers’ wealth creation.
One source of our optimism lies in private companies. The pipeline of innovation in private markets remains rich, particularly in the United States. Many ambitious businesses are choosing to stay private for longer.
According to one estimate, approximately 83 per cent of US companies with revenues above $100m have yet to go public. Our ability to gain access to founders and funding rounds depends on relationships built on trust and a reputation for providing patient capital.
We have spent more than a decade building that advantage, which continues to connect us with some of the most exciting and disruptive firms in private markets.
We are also energised by the practical deployment of artificial intelligence (AI). The dominant platforms of the past two decades connected people at scale. The focus now is intelligence at scale: software and systems that learn from data to make or support decisions.
AI, as a theme, already runs through many companies we own on behalf of our clients, from those building the core infrastructure - for example specialist chips and datacentres - to those quietly embedding it in logistics, healthcare and finance to improve outcomes and productivity. We explore where AI is delivering measurable benefits today and seek companies well-prepared for the next wave of infrastructure and data.
Our third advantage is our culture. As a private partnership, we can re-invest in our business on behalf of our clients without the distractions of quarterly market reporting. That gives us the freedom to invest actively and deliberately for the long term.
Whatever the equity strategy, we are committed to searching for exceptional companies that may be underappreciated today but have the potential to deliver extraordinary results.
What brings us together is a shared belief that long-term, active investing matters in this new era of synthesis. Because, despite volatility, scepticism and noise, we remain convinced that growth can be found in both public and private markets, across a variety of industries and regions.
Technology is reshaping the world. Structural and cultural changes are splintering markets and offering new avenues for growth.
Investing is, at heart, a synthesis of patience, imagination, insight, judgement, conviction and humility. That is what we aim to practise at Baillie Gifford, and to evolve on that journey with our clients.
This article is adapted from managing partner Amy Atack’s opening remarks at Baillie Gifford’s 2025 client forums.
Risk Factors
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 was produced and approved in January 2026 and has not been updated subsequently. It represents views held at the time of writing and may not reflect current thinking.
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.
