Billionaires Still Like Investing in the U.S. Just Not as Much as Before. -- Barrons.com

By Abby Schultz

The world's billionaires aren't as keen on investing in the U.S. today as they were a year ago.

Policy uncertainty, high stock valuations, inflation, and "the way in which the U.S. is engaging the world," have prompted billionaires surveyed by UBS to shift their views of North America as an investment destination, Dan Scansaroli, UBS's co-head of investment management, Americas, said in an interview.

In UBS's 11th annual Billionaire Ambitions Report, released Thursday, 63% of those surveyed said North America offers "the greatest opportunity for returns," in the next 12 months. A year ago, 80% of billionaires surveyed cited North America as the best location for returns.

"U.S. exceptionalism still is very strong in our survey, but that is where we saw the biggest shift," Scansaroli says. Their interest moved "to both emerging markets, like China, as well as Western Europe," despite the fact valuations of European stocks lag U.S. stocks by 30% on a relative basis, he adds.

"They're looking to diversify, but they still want to be entrenched in the most liquid capital markets," Scansaroli says.

These investing views are based on an online survey of 87 of UBS's billionaire clients who were contacted between July 10 and Sept. 25, with followup interviews taking place through Oct. 7.

The report -- which also draws from a UBS/PwC billionaire database -- found the number of billionaires in the world continues to explode, rising nearly 9% in the 12 months through April 4 to 2,919. Their combined wealth grew 13% to nearly $15.8 trillion from just under $14 trillion a year earlier, the report said.

According to the survey, 40% of the billionaires view Western Europe as offering the greatest opportunity for returns, up from 18% a year ago, while 34% cite Greater China and 33% cite the rest of Asia-Pacific, up from 11% and 25%, respectively, a year earlier.

International stocks are more appealing to U.S.-dollar investors because of falling rates and a movement away from the dollar on the part of central banks, Scansaroli said in an email.

Though billionaires are cautious about investing too heavily in China in the near-term because of economic challenges and geopolitical risks in the region, "they find the region's accommodative monetary and fiscal policies, coupled with approximately 30% lower valuations, appealing," Scansaroli said. "Moreover, China's centrally managed goal of achieving technological superiority and independence, particularly with advances in AI innovations like DeepSeek, is seen as another way to capture outsized returns following the rally in U.S. technology stocks."

Risks that billionaire investors perceive around tariffs, geopolitics, policy uncertainty and inflation are also continuing to push them toward real assets, such as infrastructure and real estate, in addition to gold -- even though it's already skyrocketed in value, Scansaroli says. The precious metal was up about 59% for the year on Tuesday, according to Dow Jones Market Data.

In the UBS survey, 64% of billionaires plan to stay invested in gold in the next 12 months and 32% plan to slightly or significantly increase their holdings. Of those surveyed a year earlier, 56% planned to keep their exposure and 40% planned to increase it.

UBS subtitled its report "the rise of a new generation," as it provides evidence that the Great Wealth transfer that has long been discussed is underway, Jennifer Gabrielli, UBS's global co-head of wealth planning and ultra high net worth advisory, said in an interview.

Although more than two thirds of the newest crop of 287 billionaires are "self-made" entrepreneurs, the remaining third -- 91 individuals -- stepped into the billionaire ranks through inheritance. These individuals inherited nearly $298 billion collectively -- 36% more than the nearly $219 billion inherited a year earlier, the report said.

More than half of the inheritors are from Western Europe, given the region's longer history of wealth accumulation. Among these new billionaires are 15 members of Germany's Boehringer Ingelheim pharmaceutical company, including 19-year-old Johannes von Baumbach, according to Forbes.

UBS estimates another $5.9 trillion will be inherited by billionaires between now and 2040, "which is a really short time horizon," Gabrielli says.

Though the tsunami of inherited wealth has begun, 196 of the newly minted billionaires grew their own wealth -- a collective $386.5 billion -- in the 12 months through April 4. Although tech entrepreneurs dominate the ranks, the self-made individuals were from a variety of fields, including marketing software, genetics, restaurants, and infrastructure, with 92 from the U.S.

The new self-made billionaires include Ben Lamm, who co-founded the genetics and bioscience company Colossal in the U.S., and Justin Sun, a Chinese crypto entrepreneur who founded the blockchain TRON and is known for his eccentric art purchases.

Write to Abby Schultz at abby.schultz@barrons.com

This content was created by Barron's, which is operated by Dow Jones & Co. Barron's is published independently from Dow Jones Newswires and The Wall Street Journal.

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December 04, 2025 03:30 ET (08:30 GMT)

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