Scottish Mortgage Investment Trust - the Baillie Gifford-run closed-end vehicle listed in London - said it exited Tesla in April, ending a long-running investment that began in 2013. In a July update, the trust said it had put around $470 million into Tesla and realized approximately $6.2 billion in profit over 13 years.
The fund also reported SpaceX at 11.1% of assets as of Wednesday, a decrease from 15% on Sept. 30. Those reductions followed the company's June flotation, with sales timed as lock-up periods eased in phases.
On Tesla, the trust said: "Since we first invested in 2013, it has returned 13 times the capital invested, but we felt the share price had come to reflect much of its promise in autonomy and robotics." It also highlighted tougher competition in Tesla's main car business, particularly in China.
SpaceX has been a standout. Its initial entry came in December 2018, at a company valuation of about $31 billion, and it went on to commit roughly $200 million through 2021. As launches and Starlink expanded, SpaceX grew to around one-quarter of the portfolio by value at the IPO, and then added 8 percentage points to returns over the six months to Sept. 30.
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Over that span, the trust's NAV returned 31.5% versus 16% for the FTSE All-World, and its share price gained 33.8%. Proceeds from SpaceX share sales helped repay borrowings and reduce gearing. As the trust put it, reducing the stake after the flotation while keeping a large position reflects "balancing conviction with disciplined portfolio management."
On Thursday, SpaceX and Tesla shares slid about 9% and 11%, respectively, cutting their combined market value by more than $420 billion versus Tuesday's close. The drop was linked to worries among investors that, after the U.S. midterms, Congress might open fresh investigations into Elon Musk, which could result in stricter scrutiny of his companies.
Scottish Mortgage is among several U.K. investment trusts that backed SpaceX early. Another Baillie Gifford fund, Edinburgh Worldwide Investment Trust, faced a fierce activist push in 2025 spearheaded by Saba Capital, the hedge fund run by Boaz Weinstein, with its SpaceX holding as the central flashpoint.
For investors in high-growth funds, this is a live example of harvesting gains to cut leverage while keeping exposure to core ideas. Scottish Mortgage still expresses high conviction in SpaceX even after selling down, and it used proceeds to lower gearing. Market snapshots referenced alongside the update: Scottish Mortgage Investment Trust plc at 1,460.50 GBp, up 1.85% at 2:56 PM GMT; Space Exploration Technologies Corp at 130.31, up 5.41% at 9:56 AM EST; Tesla Inc at 354.89, up 3.26% at 9:56 AM EST.
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