September was a quieter month in terms of reports, but we still saw a large flow of news in the technology sector \u2013 and the portfolio performed strongly during the month.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The dominant theme remains artificial intelligence (AI), and we saw more commitments around large-scale AI data center expansions, which is benefiting many of our portfolio companies. This was particularly evident in Oracle\u2019s results, which signaled a very large and long-term commitment from OpenAI to build capacity, and Nvidia\u2019s investment in OpenAI also underscores a long-term focus on AI infrastructure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
On the user side, new models for image and video generation, as well as increasingly advanced encoding models, continue to contribute to the already very tight balance between supply and demand for GPUs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In terms of company fundamentals, we continued to see strong performance among our AI-exposed holdings. TSMC, which reported its second quarter in July, also reported strong sales in August. More generally, Taiwanese sales figures for July showed continued strength, suggesting a strong build-up of Nvidia's latest systems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
On the short side, we saw increased potential headwinds for IT services companies (which we remain short) due to US government policy. In the analog semiconductor space, we still see no clear signs of recovery and remain short in several companies in the sector.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The fund rose 4.9% in September and is up 6.9% so far this year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n