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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>
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<p><strong>Tell us about the company.</strong></p>
<p><strong>Qian Zhang:</strong> Semiconductors are tiny silicon chips that act like the brain and nerve systems of every digital device we use today. Without them, say goodbye to smartphones, cars, or even washing machines. </p>
<p>Chips are the invisible engines of modern life, and more than 90 per cent of the world’s most advanced ones are made by a single company, TSMC.</p>
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<p><strong>What makes this company special?</strong></p>
<p>What makes TSMC special is the expertise and skill in an indispensable industry. In the 1980s, it pioneered the Foundry model, splitting design and manufacturing. Designers like NVIDIA create the blueprints, and TSMC manufactures them at scale for many customers. This focus enables the company to relentlessly pursue technological leadership through deep research and development and massive capital investment. </p>
<p>Take a single Gigafab. TSMC’s mega factory. It cost over 20 billion US dollars to build and spans the area of 140 football fields. Inside, cutting-edge chips are made with transistors just 3 nanometers wide. To visualise that, imagine fitting a million of these tiny switches across the body of a garden ant. That level of microposition and that kind of scale is almost impossible to replicate.</p>
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<p><strong>What could the future hold?</strong></p>
<p>We’ve invested in TSMC over 20 years, and it has grown nearly 30 times. It hasn’t been all plain sailing. TSMC can be a tricky stock to own. The chip industry is famously cyclical. Half of the company’s quarterly earnings miss endless forecast. R&D cycles are long, and demands shift fast. In 2020, Chad GPT wasn’t even considered in the company’s valuation.</p>
<p>You might possibly wonder, what if we saw that others didn’t? Certainly not predicting the quarters. It’s seeing years and decades. Our process explicitly asks, what could a business earn in five years or more? This gives us a differentiated angle on identifying a company’s significant long-term earning power.</p>
<p>As AI spreads across industries, the world will need faster, thinner, smarter chips. TSMC will continue to shape the world’s silicon future.</p>
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<h3 class="MsoNormal">Risk factors</h3>
<p class="MsoNormal">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 & Co unless otherwise stated.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">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.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">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 class="MsoNormal">This communication was produced and approved in April 2026 and has not been updated subsequently. It represents views held at the time of writing and may not reflect current thinking.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">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 class="MsoNormal">As at February 2026, Baillie Gifford held TSMC. A full list of holdings is available on request and is subject to change.</p>
