Scottish Mortgage’s Private-Market Bet Draws Mitsubishi as SpaceX and Anthropic IPO Dates Loom

Mitsubishi UFJ builds 3.02% voting stake in Scottish Mortgage Trust, which now holds 21% in SpaceX ahead of its June 2026 IPO, highlighting concentration risk in private assets.

Mitsubishi UFJ Asset Management has quietly built a 3.02% voting stake in Scottish Mortgage Investment Trust, crossing the threshold on 28 May and reporting the position on 3 June. The move signals that large institutional investors are willing to bet alongside Baillie Gifford’s unorthodox strategy, even as the trust’s exposure to private companies swells past 40% of assets.

The biggest driver of that private-market tilt is SpaceX. Baillie Gifford now values Elon Musk’s rocket builder at $1.6 trillion, based on the $135 issue price for its long-awaited initial public offering scheduled for 12 June 2026. That revaluation has pushed SpaceX’s portfolio weight to 21%, turning Scottish Mortgage into a giant one-way bet on a single unlisted name. The trust’s stake in SpaceX alone contributed a 179% return last fiscal year.

Anthropic, the artificial-intelligence developer in which Scottish Mortgage holds 2.6%, added further momentum this week when it filed its own IPO paperwork. The twin listing rumours catapulted the trust’s shares to a fresh all-time high on Tuesday, before the euphoria faded. By Friday the stock had slid 4.44% to €17.11, about 12% below the record €19.50 set on 25 May. Even so, the year-to-date advance stands at roughly 23%.

Management moved to capitalise on the strong demand by issuing new shares at a premium to net asset value. On 1 June it placed 2.35 million shares from treasury, followed by another 3.85 million the next day. Both tranches were sold above NAV, taking advantage of the IPO-fuelled investor enthusiasm.

The concentration risk is stark. Non-listed companies make up just over 40% of the portfolio, including heavyweight positions in ByteDance and Stripe alongside the soon-to-debut SpaceX and Anthropic. With SpaceX alone accounting for a fifth of assets, the 12 June listing will serve as a real-world stress test. Analysts are watching the lock-up periods closely: when restrictions on insider selling expire, the shares could face significant downward pressure. Scottish Mortgage’s ability to ride out that volatility will determine whether its high-conviction wager pays off.