Sands Capital Management, LLC released its Q1 2026 investor letter for its “Select Growth Strategy”.
A copy of the letter is available to download here
Select Growth mainly targets leading U.S. businesses, driving positive structural changes. U.S. large-cap growth stocks fell in the first quarter. Sharp dispersion driven by AI advances marked the quarter, but late in the quarter, geopolitical tensions with Iran caused a broad-based risk-off move across the market.
AI continued to influence market behavior, with AI-related investments increasing dispersion and shifting capital to asset-heavy sectors benefiting from AI infrastructure demand, which faced less disruption risk. While equities struggled, corporate fundamentals remained strong. Select Growth underperformed the Russell 1000 Growth Index, returning -12.9% vs. -9.8%, due to concerns about AI disruption affecting sector and stock choices.