US Holdings of Foreign Securities Jump 21.7% to $19.26 Trillion, Treasury Survey Shows

By The Edge Research Team

US investors’ holdings of foreign securities rose 21.7% to $19.26 trillion at the end of 2025, according to final annual survey data the US Treasury released on 30 October.

Shares did nearly all of the work. The market value of foreign equity holdings rose $3.14 trillion, which is 91.3% of the year’s increase. Its share of the total climbed to 79.1% from 76.4%. In The Edge’s reading, 2025 deepened the equity tilt of American portfolios abroad: debt grew too, but at less than a third of the pace of shares.

The survey was conducted jointly by the Treasury, the Federal Reserve Bank of New York and the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System. It measures the market value of US portfolio holdings of foreign stocks and of long-term and short-term debt securities at each year-end.

Equity drives a $3.43 trillion rise

The total rose $3.43 trillion from $15.82 trillion at the end of 2024. It is the largest dollar gain between any two consecutive surveys in the country history table; the next largest was $2.52 trillion in 2017.

The country table runs from 1994. In percentage terms, 2025 brought the fastest rise since 2017, when holdings grew 25.5%.

Equity holdings rose 25.9% to $15.23 trillion. Long-term debt, meaning securities with an original maturity of more than one year, rose 7.8% to $3.61 trillion.

Short-term debt grew 10.0% to $418 billion. Debt of both kinds came to $4.03 trillion. Its share of the total fell to 20.9% from 23.6%.

The end-2025 figure sits 18.0% above the previous high of $16.32 trillion, set at the end of 2021. Holdings then fell 14.2% in 2022. They rose 9.5% in 2023 and 3.1% in 2024.

US holdings of foreign securities by type (in $ billions)

Long-term debt has an original term to maturity of more than one year. Values at 31 December of each year; components may not add to the total because of rounding.

Year-end holdings, 2021 to 2025 (in $ billions)

Rounded from the survey’s country history table, published in millions of dollars.

Four jurisdictions account for 43.9% of the total

The Cayman Islands top the ranking at $3.07 trillion, or 16.0% of all US holdings. The United Kingdom follows at $2.01 trillion, then Canada at $1.88 trillion and Japan at $1.48 trillion.

Together the four come to $8.45 trillion. The 10 largest destinations make up 69.8% of the total.

The mix differs sharply across the leaders. Equity is 81.6% of US holdings in the Cayman Islands, while debt makes up 32.2% of the Canadian total.

Canada also stands out in short-term paper. Its $124 billion of short-term debt is 29.8% of all US holdings of foreign short-term securities.

Taiwan grew fastest in the top 10, up 45.1% to $668 billion, and its holdings are almost entirely equity. Switzerland rose 33.2% and Canada 28.4%. The Cayman Islands and Ireland grew slowest of the 10, by 11.1% and 11.8%.

Beyond the top 10, South Korea nearly doubled, up 97.4% to $384 billion. Mainland China rose 32.2% to $318 billion. India was close to flat at $390 billion, up 1.9%.

Largest US holdings by country (in $ billions)

Values at 31 December. The 2025 figures are as the release prints them; the 2024 figures are rounded from the survey’s country history table in millions of dollars, and changes are computed on the millions.

US holdings of Gulf securities rise 14.0% to $141.6 billion

US holdings of securities from the six GCC countries reached $141.6 billion at the end of 2025, up 14.0%. None of the six appears in the release’s country ranking, which lists 30 entries, so these figures come from the survey’s country history table. Its six country rows add up to $124.2 billion for 2024.

Saudi Arabia is the largest at $60.3 billion, up 6.0%. The UAE follows at $50.3 billion after a 29.7% rise, and the two together make up 78.1% of the Gulf total.

The UAE’s gain came mostly from shares. US holdings of UAE equity rose 35.3% to $33.3 billion, and short-term UAE debt more than doubled to $4.8 billion.

Saudi growth came from debt. US holdings of long-term Saudi debt rose 19.8% to $14.3 billion, while Saudi equity was little changed at $44.8 billion.

Kuwait grew fastest in the Gulf, up 41.3% to $10.7 billion. Its long-term debt line rose to $2.4 billion from $367 million. Kuwaiti equity rose 13.2% to $8.1 billion.

Bahrain rose 21.6% to $3.0 billion, almost all of it long-term debt. Qatar’s total fell 6.7% to $13.1 billion, with long-term debt lower while equity rose. Oman’s fell 6.0% to $4.3 billion, almost all of it debt.

GCC holdings stood at $76.1 billion at the end of 2019, so the 2025 figure is 86.1% higher. Over the same six years the UAE line rose 157.1% and the Saudi line 115.7%.

Equity makes up 67.2% of US holdings across the six. The Gulf’s share of all US foreign holdings eased to 0.74% from 0.79%, because the global total grew faster.

Outside the Gulf, US holdings of Egyptian securities rose 37.1% to $11.9 billion. Long-term debt is the largest part, at $7.9 billion.

US holdings of GCC securities (in $ millions)

Values at 31 December. The GCC total is the sum of the six country rows.

GCC holdings by type at end 2025 (in $ millions)

LT is long-term and ST is short-term debt. Components may not add to the country totals because of rounding.

What to watch:

26 February 2027: preliminary results of the companion survey of foreign portfolio holdings of US securities, measured at the end of June 2026, are expected.

Method: figures are from the survey release of 30 October 2026 and its country history table of the same date; percentage changes, sums, shares and the GCC total not attributed to a source are The Edge’s calculations; prose figures are rounded, tables exact as published or rounded once from millions where stated.

Sources: US Department of the Treasury, The Edge.

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