Scottish Mortgage Hits Record High and Issues Premium Shares on Anthropic and SpaceX Tailwinds

Scottish Mortgage Investment Trust raises £95M by placing shares above NAV, avoiding dilution as Anthropic and SpaceX IPO catalysts drive investor demand.

The Scottish Mortgage Investment Trust has seized on a surge in investor demand to place shares from its treasury at a premium to net asset value – a manoeuvre that protects existing holders while raising fresh capital. The trust placed 3.85 million shares at 1,545.42 pence each on 2 June, following a 2.35 million share placement at 1,516.50 pence the previous day. Together, the two tranches generated roughly £95 million for the trust.

The placements were executed at a mark-up over the cum?fair NAV, which stood at 1,443.85 pence on 1 June. That put the 2 June issue at a premium of around 7.0%, while the 1 June tranche carried a premium of about 5.0%. Issuing above NAV is a deliberate signal: it avoids diluting the portfolio value per share for existing investors, unlike the all?too?common practice of selling at a discount.

The catalyst behind the demand surge is a pair of blockbuster IPO narratives in the trust’s portfolio. On 1 June, Anthropic, the artificial?intelligence company behind the Claude chatbot, filed a confidential IPO registration with the SEC. Anthropic accounts for roughly 2.6% of Scottish Mortgage’s assets, with a book value of around £400 million. The company’s numbers are staggering: it closed a Series H round in May 2026 that raised $65 billion at a $965 billion valuation, and its annualised revenue has rocketed to $47 billion from just $1 billion a year earlier. In the second quarter of 2026 alone, Anthropic generated $10.9 billion in revenue and was operationally profitable.

SpaceX, the trust’s largest single holding at 19.3% of the portfolio, adds further momentum. Market rumours peg a possible SpaceX IPO for 12 June at a valuation of roughly $1.75 trillion. Should the listing proceed, it would trigger a re?evaluation of Scottish Mortgage’s net asset value and provide a fresh tailwind for the share price.

Between the two placements, the trust’s treasury stock fell from around 371.9 million shares to roughly 365.7 million, while the number of shares in issue climbed to nearly 1.12 billion. The tradeable float is therefore expanding rapidly – a sign of strong underlying demand from investors who want exposure to the trust’s unlisted growth names.

The price action has been equally striking. The trust closed at 1,545.00 pence on 2 June, a gain of 1.18% and the third consecutive daily advance. That marked a new all?time high, lifting the year?to?date return to about 32%. (In euro terms, the stock traded at 17.59 on Wednesday after a 4% pullback, still roughly 10% below its 52?week high of 19.50 euros.) The market capitalisation now stands at around £17 billion.

Technically, the relative strength index has climbed to 87, a level conventionally associated with overbought conditions. Retail platforms, however, continue to report heavy demand, suggesting that many investors are looking through short?term momentum at the upcoming catalysts. The trust’s premium?issuance tap remains open as long as the market price stays above the reported portfolio value.

The next milestone on the calendar is the ex?dividend date of 11 June, when the trust will pay out 2.97 pence per share – just a day before the speculated SpaceX IPO could ignite the next leg of the re?rating. For now, Scottish Mortgage’s ability to sell shares at a premium provides a rare and powerful source of low?cost equity, one that the manager has every incentive to keep using while the window remains open.