Sands Capital, an investment management company, released its "Sands Capital Technology Innovators Fund" Q2 2026 investor letter. A copy of the letter can be downloaded here. In the quarter, global equities rebounded sharply, with the MSCI ACWI posting its strongest quarterly gain since 2020, supported by broad market strength, easing geopolitical tensions, and continued enthusiasm for AI infrastructure. Information technology led the advance, with semiconductor and hardware companies accounting for most of the index's rise. The fund returned 26.9% (net) in the second quarter of 2026. The portfolio benefited from strong gains across memory, software infrastructure, cybersecurity, and other AI-related holdings, although its concentrated exposure to mega-cap chip designers and manufacturers weighed on relative performance as leadership broadened into CPUs, networking, and memory. Vertical software, internet, and financial holdings were modest detractors amid macro concerns and uncertainty over AI disruption. The fund remains focused on critical AI bottlenecks, including compute, memory, manufacturing, networking, and power, while retaining selected businesses that may use AI to strengthen their competitive positions. You can check the fund's top five holdings to learn more about its leading investment ideas for the year.
In its second-quarter 2026 investor letter, Sands Capital Technology Innovators Fund highlighted Palantir Technologies Inc. (NASDAQ:PLTR). Palantir Technologies Inc. (NASDAQ:PLTR), which builds and deploys software platforms for the intelligence community to ***** ist in counterterrorism investigations and operations, detracted from the performance this quarter. On August 7, 2026, Palantir Technologies Inc. (NASDAQ:PLTR) closed at $172.01 per share. One-month return of Palantir Technologies Inc. (NASDAQ:PLTR) was 32.27% and its shares lost 5.84% over the past 52 weeks. Palantir Technologies Inc. (NASDAQ:PLTR) has a market capitalization of $413.36 billion.
Sands Capital Technology Innovators Fund stated the following regarding Palantir Technologies Inc. (NASDAQ:PLTR) in its Q2 2026 investor letter:
"Palantir Technologies Inc. (NASDAQ:PLTR) is a data intelligence and operational AI platform that helps governments and enterprises solve complex challenges by integrating and ***** yzing data across functions. Our holding was a detractor during the quarter, as shares declined despite reporting very strong first-quarter results. Revenue growth accelerated meaningfully, the company delivered a record guidance raise, and profitability continued to improve, with strong incremental margins and continued GAAP earnings growth. In our view, the stock reaction reflected elevated expectations and ongoing investor debate around valuation and competition from AI labs, rather than deterioration in the underlying business. We believe Palantir is increasingly proving itself as a clear winner in artificial intelligence, with its platform tied to dur