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 Samsara Inc. (NYSE:IOT). Samsara Inc. (NYSE:IOT), which provides solutions to connect physical operations data to its connected operations platform, detracted from the fund's performance during the quarter. On August 7, 2026, Samsara Inc. (NYSE:IOT) closed at $40.88 per share. One-month return of Samsara Inc. (NYSE:IOT) was 11.00% and its shares gained 25.78% over the past 52 weeks. Samsara Inc. (NYSE:IOT) has a market capitalization of $23.89 billion.
Sands Capital Technology Innovators Fund stated the following regarding Samsara Inc. (NYSE:IOT) in its Q2 2026 investor letter:
"Samsara Inc. (NYSE:IOT) is a leading developer of connected hardware and software for industrial operations. Shares declined despite strong first-quarter results, as broader multiple compression across select vertical software peers outweighed continued evidence of strong execution. Revenue growth remained steady at approximately 30 percent, while the company delivered roughly 500 basis points of margin leverage, reflecting improving scale and operating discipline. Samsara continues to benefit from a powerful data network effect: as more customers and connected ***** ets join the platform, Samsara captures more proprietary operational data, which improves its products, strengthens customer outcomes, and creates new monetization opportunities. This flywheel is supporting success across an expanding product portfolio and should be reinforced by upcoming product announcements and disclosures. With the stock trading near multiyear lows on forward revenue despite