Asia draws $100 billion in capital as investors diversify beyond US, Goldman executive says

Audio By Carbonatix

Enlarge

By Yantoultra Ngui and Jun Yuan Yong

SINGAPORE (Reuters) -Asia excluding China has attracted about $100 billion in capital inflows over the past nine months as global investors diversify beyond the U.S., said Kevin Sneader, Goldman Sachs’ president for Asia-Pacific ex-Japan, on Wednesday.

“There is incremental flow in this part of the world,” Sneader said at the Milken Institute Asia Summit 2025 in Singapore. “I think it’s important to put it in the context of a diversification movement, not an exit movement.” 

Japan has been a key beneficiary of the trend, while China’s equity rally since late last year has been driven mainly by domestic investors and interest in the technology sector, with foreign funds now taking another look at China, he said. 

“I think we should be cautious and not get too excited because part of that money is what I call global hedge fund money, the faster money,” he said.

“They’re operating around the 60th, 65th percentile of their average holdings,” he said. “That’s not 100%, so they’re not back to where they were. The mutual funds, longer investors, that money’s still not flowing back into China. But they’re certainly taking a hard look at Asia.” 

Sneader said the technology, consumer discretionary and industrial sectors are attracting strong interest in Asia, with healthcare gaining traction in private markets. 

Temasek International Chief Executive Dilhan Pillay, speaking at the same event, said that “globalisation as we have known it is gone,” as geopolitics, tariffs and energy constraints have reshaped returns.

“Reconfiguration of supply chains to (prioritise) resilience over efficiency, there’s a cost for resilience,” he said. “It’s like an insurance policy. So that cost doesn’t abate over time unless you have a substitution for what you’re trying to defend yourself against, (which is) the vulnerability of being reliant on one major supply chain in the world.”

Pillay added that artificial intelligence is “the most pervasive thing across the political, social and economic spectrum.”

Singaporean state investor Temasek, which manages a S$434 billion ($340 billion) portfolio, reported an 11.6% rise in net portfolio value to a record high as of March 31, with the U.S. continuing to be its largest destination for capital. The Americas made up 24% of its portfolio during the financial year, versus 22% a year earlier. 

(Reporting by Yantoultra Ngui, Jun Yuan Yong; Editing by Thomas Derpinghaus)