Sofina reveals what its funds hold: SpaceX first, and now listed

The most instructive item in Sofina's half-year report may be neither its €857 million result nor the increase in net asset value. It is a list of ten names the group had never published before.

For the first time, Sofina discloses the ten largest companies to which it is indirectly exposed through Sofina Private Funds: SpaceX, ByteDance, Stripe, Anthropic, OpenAI, Databricks, Anduril Industries, DoorDash, Ramp and Prometheus. Together they account for what Sofina calls an indicative 10% of the look-through portfolio at fair value, that is, looking through the funds to the ultimate companies.

Applied to the €11.831 billion look-through investment portfolio, that percentage represents approximately €1.18 billion. This is an Opulion calculation for the ten companies combined. Sofina does not disclose individual weights.

One Belgian share, nine US names in the indirect top ten

Nine of the ten companies are American under Sofina's classification. China-based ByteDance is the only exception. Eight of the ten are unlisted, so the indirect portfolio does provide exposure to businesses a European investor generally cannot buy on a stock exchange.

Two are exceptions, and Sofina marks them with an asterisk: SpaceX and DoorDash are listed. For those lines the company uses the share price at 30 June 2026 rather than an estimated fair value, except where it uses a derivative instrument: the value retained is then the one locked in through that instrument. Sofina adds that several holdings on the list have recently filed for an initial public offering, and that the aggregate exposure published does not reflect those events. The boundary between listed and unlisted is therefore moving inside the list itself.

Part of the black box opens at the very moment its first line becomes listed.

Technology also dominates. Sofina says companies related to artificial intelligence represent a significant and growing share. Six of Sofina's ten descriptors mention AI explicitly, including the space and software lines.

The ranking runs from Sofina's largest estimated exposure to its smallest. The activity labels are Sofina's own. The word listed reproduces the asterisk it places on SpaceX and DoorDash. Individual weights are not disclosed.

ByteDance appears in both portfolios

ByteDance ranks first among Sofina Direct holdings and second among the underlying exposures of Sofina Private Funds. Sofina says it is the only business whose combined exposure exceeds 5% of the look-through portfolio.

The overlap illustrates a mechanism that is often invisible in diversified holding companies. The same business may be held directly, through a co-investment vehicle and through several funds. Reading only the direct holdings list can therefore understate the true economic exposure.

Three rankings measure concentration, and they do not add up

Sofina now provides three complementary rankings. The ten largest direct holdings represent 27% of the look-through portfolio. The ten largest fund managers represent 24%. The ten largest underlying companies held through those funds represent 10%.

The three measures describe different risks and do not add up. The first concerns assets selected directly by Sofina. The second measures manager concentration: the six largest general partners disclosed, in order, are Sequoia Capital, Lightspeed, HongShan, Thrive Capital, Andreessen Horowitz and Founders Fund. The third follows the ultimate companies across fund structures. Sofina specifies that this third ranking excludes any direct holding it may have in the same company, which is exactly the ByteDance case.

The amounts above are Opulion estimates obtained by applying the published percentages to the €11.831 billion look-through portfolio. They provide an order of magnitude and do not replace values that Sofina does not disclose line by line.

Direct is anchored in Europe, the funds in North America

The list makes an existing architecture more visible. Sofina Direct is mainly European, while Sofina Private Funds is mainly North American.

The combination maintains a European base in direct relationships while using funds to access the main US venture-capital ecosystems.

What the disclosure does not yet allow us to know

Publishing the names improves transparency. It does not turn a private portfolio into a listed one. Six qualifications remain necessary.

Data freshness and external verification also need separating. Sofina says more than 81% of the fair value of Sofina Private Funds is based either on reports as at 30 June 2026 or on market prices or transaction prices. Kroll's valuation assistance covers unlisted Sofina Direct investments representing 47% of the look-through portfolio, but not Sofina Private Funds. Sofina states that these are limited procedures, not an audit or a fairness opinion.

What the list changes in reading an unlisted portfolio

The information is not merely the prominence of the names. Sofina shows how relationships with more than 90 managers and over 630 funds translate into concrete economic exposures. Readers can connect the listed vehicle to its ultimate assets, identify some overlaps and better locate possible sources of performance or volatility.

The disclosure does not remove the uncertainty inherent in private assets. It makes that uncertainty more observable. For a portfolio that is 92% unlisted, the difference is not a small one.

Also in this series

Sofina: private funds generated 98% of portfolio result breaks down the €857 million result, currency effects, multiple compression, the move from net cash to net debt and the gap between the share price and net asset value.