Baron Durable Advantage Strategy

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company Limited (TSM), known as TSMC, is the world's largest independent semiconductor foundry, manufacturing chips on behalf of other companies.
TSMC is the dominant force in leading-edge semiconductor foundry manufacturing, as it benefits from economies of scale and a superior cost structure. The company's successful track record of deploying new technology faster than competitors helps it maintain market share and pricing power. We believe TSMC’s investments in advanced nodes will strengthen its market leadership and support long-term profitability.

NVIDIA Corporation (NVDA) sells semiconductors, systems, and software for accelerated computing, gaming, and generative AI.
Computing demand has been doubling every one to two years, driven by electrification, digitization, and recent advancements in AI, yet supply growth has decelerated dramatically due to the slowdown in Moore's law. NVIDIA’s accelerated computing architecture enables continued growth in computing capacity through parallelization. We are at the tipping point of a new era in computing, with NVIDIA at its epicenter as generative AI adoption grows. With leading market share in gaming, data centers, and autonomous machines, we think NVIDIA is well positioned for long-term growth.

Amazon.com, Inc. (AMZN) is an e-commerce pioneer, innovator, and market share leader with a relentless focus on providing value and convenience to its customers. Amazon also operates the industry-leading cloud infrastructure business Amazon Web Services (AWS). 
Amazon's market share of U.S. online retail sales is around 45%, while its share of global retail sales is less than 5%. Amazon has many avenues for revenue growth, including consumer staples, international expansion, grocery, digital media offerings, private label, pharmacy and health care services, advertising, and a better shopping experience powered by generative AI. Amazon also represents an opportunity to invest in the secular growth of cloud computing and the adoption of enterprise AI through AWS — a large, fast-growing, and margin-accretive part of the business. 

Alphabet Inc. (GOOGL) is the parent of Google, the world’s leading online search provider. Its products and services include advertising, Android, Chrome, Google Cloud, Google Maps, Google Play, and YouTube. Other Bets includes businesses such as Waymo and CapitalG.
Alphabet should remain a major beneficiary of the shift in advertising from traditional media to online and mobile platforms. Its vast datasets improve products and support expansion into adjacent markets. Alphabet’s scale, distribution, and technical talent position it to benefit from AI across Search and Google Cloud. YouTube provides exposure to the shift toward connected TV, while Waymo remains a leader in autonomous driving.

Broadcom Inc. (AVGO) designs, develops, and supplies a wide range of semiconductor and infrastructure software solutions. Its semiconductor devices serve broadband, networking, wireless, storage, and industrial markets, while its software offerings focus on operational efficiency tools for large enterprises.
Broadcom’s semiconductor portfolio is reaching an inflection point, driven by its AI solutions in networking and custom compute. We expect Broadcom to capture a significant share of most of the custom AI chips market, a market opportunity of hundreds of billions, and to grow VMware at a high-teens rate over the next few years. The rest of Broadcom’s semiconductor business is recovering, and we expect other software segments to grow at a mid-single-digit rate. The company has best-in-class margins and cash flow, which it returns to shareholders.

Software company Microsoft Corporation (MSFT) is a software company best known for Windows and Office. Over the past six years, it has expanded Microsoft Cloud into a $214 billion annual business spanning Microsoft 365 Commercial, Dynamics 365, Azure and other cloud services, GitHub, and commercial LinkedIn.
Over the past decade, Microsoft has transformed itself by refocusing the business on cloud computing and AI. Microsoft Cloud now represents approximately 65% of revenue and grew 27% year over year in fiscal 2026. The company’s moat is built on the reach of its sales channel, diverse software platform, hybrid cloud capabilities, and the high costs of switching away from its mission-critical solutions. We believe Microsoft will benefit from growing cloud adoption for years to come.

Monolithic Power Systems, Inc. (MPWR), known as MPS, is a fabless provider of high-performance analog power semiconductors used in DC-DC voltage conversion across compute and storage, enterprise data, automotive, industrial, communications, and consumer end markets.
MPS has a long history of growing faster than the broader semiconductor market and still holds a relatively small share of its addressable markets, providing a long runway for growth. We believe the company remains early in penetrating large and expanding markets, including data centers, automotive, communications, and industrial applications. MPS’s deep system-level knowledge, design expertise, entrepreneurial culture, and proprietary process, integration, and packaging technologies enable highly integrated, compact, energy-efficient, and cost-effective solutions.

Meta Platforms, Inc. (META) owns Facebook, the world’s largest social network, as well as Instagram, Messenger, WhatsApp, and Meta Quest. Across its family of apps, Meta reaches 3.6 billion people daily.
Meta owns differentiated social platforms with large, highly engaged user bases. Advertisers follow user attention, and Meta’s ability to target ads and demonstrate attractive returns makes its platforms particularly valuable. We believe the company has substantial room to further monetize its global user base, especially outside the U.S. Meta could also emerge as a leader in consumer AI, with multiple paths to product integration and monetization.

Visa Inc. (V) operates a global payments network connecting consumers, financial institutions, merchants, businesses, and governments. It processes transactions through authorization, clearing, and settlement and provides related value-added services.
Visa should benefit from consumer spending growth and the secular shift from cash to electronic payments, particularly outside the U.S., where digital adoption remains less mature. Its trusted brand, global acceptance network, and relationships with financial institutions create durable competitive advantages. Strong cash generation supports continued investment, dividends, and share repurchases.

Welltower Inc. (WELL) is a $100 billion diversified health care owner and manager of senior housing, including assisted and independent living. Core to its strategy is to partner with top-tier operators and health systems while providing operators access to its proprietary data analytics platform.
We are optimistic about the prospects for Welltower given the substantial opportunity for cyclical recovery and continued secular growth in its senior housing business through occupancy and rent growth. The company also benefits from its proven ability to recycle capital at attractive rates of returns, premier health care platform, partnerships with top-tier operators, and well-respected management team focused solely on creating value on a per-share basis.