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Foreign investors buy into US equities at record rate

Sep 27, 2026, 6:29pm EDT
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Traders work on the floor at the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in New York City, U.S.
Brendan McDermid/Reuters

Net purchases of US equities and investment fund shares by foreign investors reached a record $426 billion in the second quarter, as overseas capital piled into an AI boom that has shown few signs of slowing.

Hundreds of billions of dollars have moved in and out of AI-exposed stocks, with semiconductor firms showing dramatic swings amid mounting warnings of the technology’s risks: “This has been a narrative market, and the narrative changes every other week,” an investment manager told Bloomberg.

Still, it “feels like the world is very high on US equity,” a Council on Foreign Relations expert said. Multinationals are now gauging countries’ “AI openness” when deciding investments, the Financial Times reported, putting Europe at a potential disadvantage to the US.

Foreign investors’ net purchases of US stocks and funds
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