Overseas investors withdrew a net $137.36 billion from Asian equities during the first half of 2026, marking the fastest pace of selling in at least 16 years.
The exodus reflects growing caution among global funds as valuations in artificial intelligence-related stocks reach crowded levels, prompting a broad-based rebalancing away from the region's growth leaders.
South Korea and Taiwan bore the brunt of the sell-off, with foreign capital pulling $70.
South Korea and Taiwan bore the brunt of the sell-off, with foreign capital pulling $70.8 billion and $29.6 billion respectively.
These two markets, which have been central to the global AI hardware and semiconductor supply chain, saw the most intense pressure as traders took profits on extended positions.
The remaining outflows were distributed across India, Indonesia, Thailand, Vietnam, and the Philippines, indicating that the rotation is not limited to the region's largest tech hubs but is affecting emerging market equities more broadly.
The scale of the withdrawal underscores a shift in sentiment from the earlier phases of the AI boom, where capital flowed aggressively into Asian tech names.