Where Do Billionaires Prefer to Invest? "Western Europe and China"

UBS Annual Investment Plans Survey
North America Preference Drops from 80% to 63%
Tariff Concerns Play a Major Role

Billionaires have identified Western Europe and China as the most promising investment destinations for 2026.

On December 13 (local time), U.S. business media outlet Business Insider reported that global investment bank UBS revealed these findings in its recently published report. UBS conducted its annual survey of billionaire clients, asking about their investment plans for the next 12 months and the next five years.

According to the survey results, 40% of billionaire respondents said they see investment opportunities in Western Europe over the next 12 months. This is a significant increase from last year’s survey, when the figure stood at 18%. The proportion of respondents who saw investment opportunities in China also surged from 11% last year to 34% this year. For the Asia-Pacific region excluding China, 33% of billionaire investors said they saw investment opportunities, an increase of 8 percentage points compared to the previous year.

In contrast, preference for North America dropped sharply. In the 2024 survey, 80% of respondents favored North America as an investment destination, but this year the figure fell to 63%.

The main factor behind this shift in investment sentiment is the burden of tariffs. Sixty-six percent of respondents cited tariffs as the factor most likely to negatively affect market conditions over the next 12 months. This was followed by the possibility of major geopolitical conflicts (63%), policy uncertainty (59%), and high inflation (44%).

By asset class, the most preferred investment target among billionaires for the next 12 months was private equity (unlisted stocks), rather than listed stocks. Forty-nine percent of respondents said they plan to allocate funds to direct investments in private equity.

The next most favored assets were hedge funds (43%) and developed market listed stocks (43%). These were followed by emerging market listed stocks (37%) and private equity funds (PEF, 35%). Respondents also indicated a greater willingness to exit their investments in private assets than in listed stocks.

Among the representative products that billionaires view most optimistically for investing in listed assets over the next year are the iShares MSCI Eurozone ETF (EZU), iShares MSCI China ETF (MCHI), Global X Emerging Markets (excluding China) ETF (EMM), and Vanguard FTSE Developed Markets ETF (VEA).