Donald Trump and Elon Musk were very much in focus in Edinburgh on Wednesday as the managers of the £12 billion Scottish Mortgage Investment Trust presented to investors.

Mr Musk’s SpaceX (Space Exploration Technologies Corp) is the largest holding of Scottish Mortgage, accounting for about 7.5% of the trust’s total assets. SpaceX is valued at about $350 billion.

And the Tesla electric vehicle and battery manufacturing business run by Mr Musk, while it has fallen out of Scottish Mortgage’s top 10 holdings with the trust having sold a large chunk of its stake on the back of a surge in the company’s shares, remains a substantial investment. Tesla accounts for about 2% of Scottish Mortgage’s total assets.

Mr Musk has very much thrown in his lot with Mr Trump, who will become US president again from Monday.

Tom Slater, manager of Scottish Mortgage, highlighted the extent of the surge in Tesla’s valuation in recent months, observing this had occurred in the absence of any significant news. And he signalled a belief that it was Mr Musk’s proximity to the incoming US president which had driven this advance.

While Scottish Mortgage has reduced its Tesla stake significantly, Mr Slater noted the trust could raise the holding again if an attractive opportunity arose.

He said: “The challenge we face as Tesla shareholders is the value of the company has increased by about half-a-trillion dollars in the last few months.

“We think some of it is driven by investors impressed by Elon’s proximity to the incoming administration.”

That is a very big rise indeed in Tesla’s valuation.

Mr Slater noted on Wednesday that Tesla’s stock market worth was around $1.5 trillion.

He........

© Herald Scotland