Foreign investors withdrew a net $49.77 billion from equities in South Korea, Taiwan, India, Indonesia, Thailand, Vietnam and the Philippines in October, Reuters reported on 11 November, citing LSEG data. Reuters called it the largest monthly net outflow since June and tied it to “concerns over hyperscalers’ cash burn and fears of tougher AI regulations ahead of US midterm elections”.
Two markets carried almost all of it. Taiwan lost a net $30.68 billion and South Korea $14.59 billion, Reuters reported: together $45.27 billion, or about 91% of the seven-market total, by our arithmetic. Taiwan’s figure was “the most since at least January 2008”, according to the report.
Business Pill · Concentration
A short explainer on concentration, when a few large pieces make up most of a total. It teaches the general idea and does not discuss these flows.
The key insight: As we read the report, this is a concentration story: Taiwan and South Korea carried $45.27 billion of the $49.77 billion net outflow, about 91%, by our arithmetic, and Reuters ties the selling to concerns over hyperscalers’ cash burn and tougher AI regulation.
Reuters wrote that the concerns “triggered a selloff in regional tech-linked stocks”. It added that Democrats’ victories in last week’s US midterm elections, “including in states where opposition to new data centres has grown, kept those concerns alive”.
Wael Makarem, lead financial market strategist at brokerage firm Exness, told Reuters: “The outflows reflect a retreat from AI-linked positions amid increased doubts about AI infrastructure spending and profitability”. He added: “Ahead of the US midterm elections, tighter environmental reviews and regulations were seen as hindering data centre construction and chip demand”.
The selling has continued. So far this month, Reuters reported, foreigners have offloaded a further $22.6 billion from the seven markets, including $19.76 billion from Taiwan and $8.32 billion from South Korea.
October 2026 net foreign selling of equities in seven Asian markets, split by market. Taiwan’s $30.68 billion and South Korea’s $14.59 billion were about 91% of the $49.77 billion total. Figures are LSEG data as reported by Reuters on 11 November 2026; the shares are our arithmetic.
Where the Money Went
Some analysts told Reuters that foreign investors may be moving money from Asia to developed markets. The MSCI Asia Pacific ex-Japan index fell 6.91% in October, against a 1.69% fall in the MSCI All Country World Index, the report said.
Scarlett Liu, Asia-Pacific equity derivatives strategist at BNP Paribas, said: “International investors may have been drawn to the relative resilience of the S&P 500 compared to the MSCI Asia ex-Japan during the month”. She also said some investors “may have increased allocations to US Treasuries as the 10y UST yield rose to 5.3% in early October”.
India ran the other way in November. After a second straight monthly foreign outflow, $3.6 billion in October, cross-border investors have put a net $5.68 billion into Indian equities this month, Reuters reported. HSBC’s Herald van der Linde wrote in a note on Monday: “We upgrade India to overweight as we think it now offers resilient earnings and more reasonable valuations”.
The smaller markets were close to flat in October: outflows of $938 million from Indonesia and $199 million from Thailand, and inflows of $122 million into Vietnam and $109 million into the Philippines, per the report.
Our Numbers
Taiwan alone was about 62% of the October net outflow and South Korea about 29%, by our arithmetic; India was about 7%, and the other four markets together about $0.9 billion net, or 2%.
The November figures are already about 45% of October’s: $22.6 billion against $49.77 billion, by our arithmetic. Taiwan’s $19.76 billion so far this month is about 64% of its October total. Taiwan and South Korea together have lost $28.08 billion in November, more than the seven-market net figure, because India took in $5.68 billion, by our arithmetic.
On the index gap, the MSCI Asia Pacific ex-Japan’s 6.91% fall in October was about four times the 1.69% fall in the global index, by our arithmetic. Earlier moves in the same stocks are in our pieces on Asian AI stocks after Nvidia’s drop and the neocloud selloff.
The Structural Read
As we read it, the markets that sell chips and memory into the AI build-out took the outflow, while India, which Reuters says recorded a smaller $3.6 billion October outflow, has drawn a net $5.68 billion this month.
As we read it, Reuters’ interviewees give two explanations that can both hold: doubts about AI infrastructure spending and profitability, and a move to US assets as the 10-year Treasury yield rose to 5.3% in early October.
Wael Makarem, Exness, to Reuters, 11 November 2026
“The outflows reflect a retreat from AI-linked positions amid increased doubts about AI infrastructure spending and profitability”
Three Implications
FOR TAIWAN Its $30.68 billion October outflow was the most since at least January 2008, Reuters reported, and the $19.76 billion so far in November is about 64% of that, by our arithmetic.
FOR SOUTH KOREA It lost a net $14.59 billion in October and $8.32 billion so far in November, per the report.
FOR THE REGION The MSCI Asia Pacific ex-Japan index fell 6.91% in October against 1.69% for the MSCI All Country World Index, Reuters reported.
The framework records: “the capex race is no longer a corporate spending cycle. It is a sovereign-scale financing problem dressed in tech-company clothing”.
As we read it, the October flows show that financing question reaching the supplier markets: Reuters links the selling in Taiwan and South Korea to concerns over hyperscalers’ cash burn. The framework predates the report and does not discuss these flows.
What Is Not Established
The causes are Reuters’ framing and its interviewees’ views; the LSEG data measure net flows by market, not why each investor sold. The report does not give a stock-by-stock breakdown, so how much of the selling hit AI and chip names, rather than other Taiwanese or Korean shares, is not in the text we read. The LSEG series covers these seven markets; Japan and China are not among the seven markets listed.
We tried to cross-check the Taiwan figure against the Taiwan Stock Exchange’s foreign-investor trading statistics, but the exchange’s site returned a maintenance page at the time of our check. The figures here are LSEG’s as reported by Reuters.
This Week In The AI Supercycle
The Great Convergence of Capital, Power, and Geopolitics
This week’s issue: for two years the AI build-out was priced as a supply story, and last week as a credit story. This week it was priced as a permission story, and the answer arrived as a cost, not a ban.
Reuters, citing LSEG data, reports that foreign investors pulled a net $49.77 billion from seven Asian equity markets in October, the largest monthly net outflow since June, amid concerns over hyperscalers’ cash burn and AI regulation. Taiwan and South Korea account for $45.27 billion of it, about 91%, by our arithmetic, and a further $22.6 billion has left the seven markets so far in November.
A note on sourcing. This piece rests on Reuters’ report of 11 November 2026, which cites LSEG data. Reuters’ own page returned a CAPTCHA to our fetch, so we read the full text as syndicated by MarketScreener and cross-read The Business Times syndication. We tried to check the Taiwan figure against the Taiwan Stock Exchange’s statistics, but its site was under maintenance. Shares of the total and other ratios are our arithmetic. Quotations from Exness, BNP Paribas and HSBC are as printed by Reuters.
Gennaro Cuofano is a CRO and tech executive who has worked in AI since late 2015, starting with bringing NLP, natural-language generation, voice and chatbot products to the marketing industry. His background is in law and finance: he holds a Master's degree in Law and an International MBA with an emphasis on corporate finance (LUISS Business School and the University of San Diego, 2012), and worked as a financial analyst at a real-estate investment firm in San Diego and as an assistant controller. His work focuses on business model strategy, business engineering and, more broadly, structural analysis: how companies make money, read from their own filings. He created FourWeekMBA and leads research there and at The Business Engineer, his newsletter on AI and business strategy, with over 95,000 subscribers and more than 1,000 published analyses. His writing has also appeared on Entrepreneur (for example, How to Digitize a Family Business in Europe) and HackerNoon. Find him on LinkedIn and Substack. See how we source.
