Amazon: Stock Story

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<p><strong>Investors should consider the investment objectives, risks, charges and expenses carefully before investing. This information and other information about the Funds can be found in the prospectus and summary prospectus. For a prospectus and summary prospectus, please visit our website at bailliegifford.com/usmutualfunds Please carefully read the Fund's prospectus and related documents before investing. Securities are offered through Baillie Gifford Funds Services LLC, an affiliate of Baillie Gifford Overseas Ltd and a member of FINRA.</strong></p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p><strong>Tell us about the company.</strong></p> <p><strong>Jon Henry (JH): </strong>In the past, the thrill of shopping from home meant flipping through hefty catalogues, placing an order by mail, and then waiting weeks for your purchase to arrive. Well, now almost anything that you want can be delivered to your door within hours. This remarkable shift is largely thanks to one pioneering company, Amazon. But Amazon’s impact doesn’t stop at shopping. It has also built the digital foundation of our modern world. Amazon Web Services, or AWS as you might know it, is the invisible backbone of the internet, quietly powering the apps and data that are integral to our everyday lives.</p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p><strong>What makes this stock special?</strong></p> <p>There are three key reasons why Amazon’s special. Firstly, it is relentlessly innovative. Amazon’s culture drives long-term value. AWS alone adds enough computing capacity daily to run a Fortune 500 company, for example. Second, its core services have become the infrastructure that we can depend on. How many times has Amazon come to the rescue and delivered something next day that you desperately needed? Well, 250 million Prime subscribers pay to access that service today. And thirdly, its diverse ecosystem, from retail and cloud to advertising and subscriptions. Amazon’s revenue streams are broad and growing.&nbsp;</p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p><strong>What could the future hold?</strong></p> <p>Scale is no growth limiter for Amazon. With £100 billion of AI spending pledged this year alone, it’s set to build more data centres and custom chips to process exponentially more data. AWS will become an indispensable business partner for more companies who will come to rely on more of its web services. Think about the expanding global financial firm whose workers log into the secure cloud workspaces hosted by Amazon, access their real-time analytics, provided by AWS Redshift, deploy new code using AWS CodePipeline, all with peace of mind that AWS Shield and GuardDuty is continuously monitoring security.&nbsp;</p> <p>For merchants, Amazon’s reach and ad targeting will be the best way to grow, whether you’re an artisan candlemaker or a global clothing brand. For customers, hyper-personalised experiences will become the norm. Imagine AI assistants like Rufus or Alexa planning your week, buying your outfits and delivering groceries at your convenience. Amazon’s future can’t be captured in a spreadsheet. Its culture of innovation and its day-one mindset mean that we’re still early in its journey. The best is yet to come.</p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p><strong>Risk factors</strong><br>The Funds are distributed by Baillie Gifford Funds Services LLC. Baillie Gifford Funds Services LLC is registered as a broker-dealer with the SEC, a member of FINRA and is an affiliate of Baillie Gifford Overseas Limited. All information is sourced from Baillie Gifford &amp; Co unless otherwise stated.</p> <p>As with all mutual funds, the value of an investment in the Fund could decline, so you could lose money. International investing involves special risks, which include changes in currency rates, foreign taxation and differences in auditing standards and securities regulations, political uncertainty and greater volatility. These risks are even greater when investing in emerging markets. Security prices in emerging markets can be significantly more volatile than in the more developed nations of the world, reflecting the greater uncertainties of investing in less established markets and economies. Currency risk includes the risk that the foreign currencies in which a Fund’s investments are traded, in which a Fund receives income, or in which a Fund has taken a position, will decline in value relative to the U.S. dollar. Hedging against a decline in the value of currency does not eliminate fluctuations in the prices of portfolio securities or prevent losses if the prices of such securities decline. In addition, hedging a foreign currency can have a negative effect on performance if the U.S. dollar declines in value relative to that currency, or if the currency hedging is otherwise ineffective.<br>For more information about these and other risks of an investment in the Funds, see "Principal Investment Risks" and "Additional Investment Strategies" in the prospectus. There can be no assurance that the Funds will achieve their investment objectives.</p> <p>This communication was produced and approved in February 2026 and has not been updated subsequently. It represents views held at the time of writing and may not reflect current thinking.</p> <p>This communication contains information on investments which does not constitute independent research. Accordingly, it is not subject to the protections afforded to independent research and Baillie Gifford and its staff may have dealt in the investments concerned.</p> <p>As at February, 2026, Baillie Gifford held Amazon. A full list of holdings is available on request and is subject to change.</p> <p>&nbsp;</p>