Ron Baron’s $66 billion fund now carries a 34.3% position in SpaceX that has fallen 15.4% below its average purchase price of $169.55, leaving the portfolio’s single largest bet underwater less than a quarter after it was initiated. The stake, valued at $143.49 per share at the end of June, was added as a new holding in the second quarter and immediately became the dominant risk in a portfolio that otherwise leans on a handful of long-held winners.
The concentration is the story
SpaceX accounts for more than one-third of assets in a fund that holds 321 names. The next largest position, Tesla at 7.3%, sits on a 1,269% gain from an average cost of $26.05 to a current price of $356.58. That spread, roughly $22 billion of unrealized profit in Tesla versus a paper loss on the SpaceX block, is the only thing keeping the aggregate return from reflecting the private-market markdown. Baron added 5% to the Tesla position in the same quarter he established SpaceX.
Profit-taking where the gains are oldest
Arch Capital, the fourth-largest holding at 2.5%, has risen 478.3% from an average $16.78 to $97.04. The fund sold 5% of that position in the second quarter, a rare trim in a portfolio that typically lets winners run. Gartner, up 105.9% from $95 to $195.62, saw a 28.4% increase instead. The contrast suggests the manager is willing to harvest insurance-cycle gains while doubling down on research-and-advisory compounding.
The growth tilt sharpens
Shopify, Spotify and Charles Schwab were all increased by triple-digit, high-double-digit and mid-double-digit percentages respectively in the quarter. Together with the Gartner addition, the moves push the portfolio further into asset-light, recurring-revenue models, industrials at $21.2 billion and manufacturing at $11.6 billion still lead by sector, but information and finance are catching up at $10 billion and $8.82 billion. The SpaceX bet remains the outlier: a private, capital-intensive venture that cannot be marked to market daily, weighted as if it were a liquid large-cap.