This red hot equity fund in my SIPP returned 12.6% in the first 2 months of 2026.
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The value of the investment in my SIPP is effective in 2026. What stands out is that Growth of the blue whale a bag.
Believe it or not, this fund returned 12.6% in the first two months of the year (compared to 3% MSCI World index). Here’s a look at how it managed to achieve this.
A bag with a high charge
Blue Whale Growth is a global equity fund managed by London-based portfolio manager Stephen Yiu. It is a conservative, ‘concentrated’ fund which means it only invests in a small number of stocks (Yiu’s best ideas).
Where this fund has had great success recently is in the chip space. The names in the portfolio here include the likes of Nvidia, Broadcom, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co, SK Hynixagain Lam research.
These stocks all benefit from the development of the global artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure. And companies like Amazon and Google is spending hundreds of billions of dollars on AI infrastructure (hyperscalers plan to spend more than $650bn this year), chip companies are seeing huge revenue growth.
Another company in the portfolio that benefits from the use of AI is Vertiv. Make cooling equipment for data centers.
A winning gold stock
It’s not just chip/AI stocks that are driving performance at Blue Whale right now. Yiu plays with several other themes. Another increase in gold prices. Here, you are the owner Company Newmont Corporation (NYSE: NEM) – the world’s largest gold producer.
This stock is still hot right now (up about 16% this year and 165% in the last 12 months). And it’s not hard to see why.
By 2025, Newmont produced 5.9m ounces of gold. The cost of producing this bullion was just $1,358 per ounce (compared to gold’s price of $5,100 today).
As a result of the gap between operating costs and gold prices, the company’s current drilling revenue, with adjusted revenue for 2025 coming in at $7.6bn versus $3.9bn for 2024. Zooming in on cash flows, this was a record annual $7.3bn in 2025, up nearly 150 years.
It’s worth noting that Newmont stock still looks very cheap today (it has a price-to-earnings (P/E) ratio of just 13), so it may be worth further research. There is no guarantee that it will continue to rise – if gold prices fall, its share price can also rise.
A unique record
I will point out that because Blue Whale is concentrated (it only holds about 33 stocks), it is more risky than a broad global equity fund as a global tracker. If Yiu gets his choice wrong, the performance can be disappointing.
Investors also need to be aware of fees. With Hargreaves Lansdown, ongoing fees are 0.84%, so they are more expensive than a tracker fund.
I am not complaining about the fees though as the performance of the fund justifies it. Over the past three years, it has returned more than 25% each year.
Given the record, I believe it is worth looking into.
