Put a dollar into VXUS and it is supposed to disappear into the rest of the world: 8,824 stocks, 49 countries, the whole planet minus the United States in one ticker. That is what the fact sheet says, and it is true. What the fact sheet does not say is that fourteen cents of that dollar now land in two places, Taiwan and Korea, and that seven years ago it was six cents. Nothing in the fund's mandate changed. The world's prices did, and this filing is the record of where they moved the money.
This is the first episode of World through ETFs: the world as seen from money in US-registered funds, read from the filings, one region at a time. The whole series rests on one document type, the Form N-PORT that every US fund files with the SEC each quarter, position by position, with the country of each issuer. VXUS is the natural place to start because it is the largest single pool of American index money outside America: $629 billion on 2026-04-30, filed 2026-06-26.
Three things this filing shows, before the tables:
- Fifteen cents in Japan, and then a long tail. Japan 14.9, United Kingdom 8.7, Canada 8.0, Taiwan 7.9, Hong Kong (as filed) 6.7, Korea 5.9, France 5.2, Switzerland 5.1, Germany 4.8, India 4.4, Australia 4.2. Eleven countries take seventy cents; the other thirty-eight share the rest.
- The seven-year move is narrow. Taiwan went from 3.3 to 7.9 cents, Korea from 3.1 to 5.9. Four companies — TSMC, Samsung, SK hynix, ASML — are now 8.2% of a fund that holds 8,824 stocks. Japan and the UK gave up the ground.
- "China" is three country codes, and Vanguard's own choice among them has moved three times since 2019. Read one code and you will conclude something that did not happen. The essay shows all three, side by side, and does not pick.
None of this is a view on whether to hold VXUS or any country. Securities-lending collateral (1.7% of net assets) is removed from every figure; the definitions are the ones used across this site.
Data as of 2026-04-30 (filing period) · received by the SEC 2026-06-26 · analysis written 2026-09-23. The next period (2026-07-31) is due by the end of September and will be re-measured here.
Where the dollar goes
Source: Form N-PORT, period 2026-04-30 via the point-in-time file. Country is the filing's own invCountry, the issuer's country of incorporation as Vanguard reports it. Weights are shares of the fund's own investments after collateral is removed.
| # | Country | Cents of $1 | 2019-10-31 | Change | Positions | Largest position |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Japan | 14.9 | 17.0 | −2.1 | 1,362 | Toyota 0.48% (3% of Japan slice) |
| 2 | United Kingdom | 8.7 | 10.1 | −1.4 | 247 | HSBC 0.74% |
| 3 | Canada | 8.0 | 6.6 | +1.4 | 215 | Royal Bank of Canada 0.59% |
| 4 | Taiwan | 7.9 | 3.3 | +4.6 | 534 | TSMC 3.94% (50% of Taiwan slice) |
| 5 | Hong Kong (as filed) | 6.7 | 2.2 | see China note | — | Tencent 0.88%, Alibaba 0.69% |
| 6 | Korea | 5.9 | 3.1 | +2.8 | 462 | Samsung 1.66% (28% of Korea slice), SK hynix 1.13% |
| 7 | France | 5.2 | 6.1 | −0.9 | ||
| 8 | Switzerland | 5.1 | 5.7 | −0.6 | Roche 0.67% | |
| 9 | Germany | 4.8 | 5.5 | −0.7 | ||
| 10 | India | 4.4 | 2.5 | +1.9 | 644 | Reliance 0.24% (5.5% of India slice) |
| 11 | Australia | 4.2 | 4.6 | −0.5 | ||
| 12 | Netherlands | 2.7 | ASML 1.31% | |||
| China, mainland (as filed) | 1.7 | 2.9 | see China note | 2,126 | CATL 0.04% |
Two things the table shows that a fact sheet's pie chart does not.
Concentration inside a country is not the same everywhere. Japan's 14.9 cents are spread across 1,362 companies and the largest, Toyota, is 3% of the Japanese slice. Taiwan's 7.9 cents are half one company. Korea's are a quarter Samsung. India's 4.4 cents are the most evenly spread of the large slices: 644 companies, the largest 5.5%. So "Taiwan 7.9%" and "Japan 14.9%" are different kinds of exposure: one is a country, the other is largely a company.
The move since 2019 is narrow. Of the 7.4 cents that Taiwan and Korea gained, most is four names. TSMC, Samsung, SK hynix and ASML together are 8.2% of VXUS at this filing. The fund holds 8,824 stocks and behaves like 280 equal holdings — still very diversified — but the direction of travel over seven years was toward a handful of chipmakers, because their market value grew faster than everything else the index holds.
The China note
Country in an N-PORT filing is whatever the filer puts in invCountry. For Chinese companies Vanguard's own code has changed:
| Filing period | Filed as KY | Filed as HK | Filed as CN |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2019-10-31 | 4.5% | 2.2% | 2.9% |
| 2020-04-30 | — | 8.4% | 1.2% |
| 2021-04-30 | — | 1.8% | 6.8% |
| 2021-07-31 | — | 3.3% | 6.5% |
| 2026-04-30 | — | 6.7% | 1.7% |
The companies did not move; the label did. Tencent and Alibaba are filed as Hong Kong today, as Cayman in 2019. So a reader who takes the CN line alone would conclude China shrank from 2.9 to 1.7 cents, and a reader who takes HK alone would conclude Hong Kong tripled. Neither happened. Read together, CN + HK (+ KY in 2019) went from 9.6 cents to 8.5. We report the codes as filed and do not reassign them, because reassigning would substitute our judgement for the filing; but we show them side by side so the sum is visible. The same caution applies to a lesser degree to any company incorporated in Ireland, the Netherlands or Bermuda.
Against the other ex-US funds
| Fund | Positions | Countries | Behaves like | Top ten | Japan | Taiwan | Korea |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| VXUS | 8,824 | 49 | 280 | 12.4% | 14.9 | 7.9 | 5.9 |
| IXUS | 4,189 | 59 | 272 | 12.6% | 14.9 | 7.9 | 5.9 |
| VEU | 3,878 | 49 | 236 | 13.5% | 15.0 | 7.8 | 5.8 |
| VEA (developed only) | 3,890 | 26 | 269 | 13.2% | 20.9 | 0.0 | 7.2 |
| VWO (emerging only) | 6,374 | 28 | 41 | 27.2% | 0.0 | 28.9 | 0.0 |
Peer figures are each fund's latest filed period (IXUS, VEU, VWO 2026-04-30; VEA 2026-06-30), same definition. VEA holds no Taiwan but 7.2% Korea, and VWO holds Taiwan but no Korea: the FTSE indexes behind Vanguard's funds place South Korea in Developed and Taiwan in Advanced Emerging (FTSE Russell Asia Pacific country classification matrix, retrieved 2026-09-20).
What this can and cannot tell you
- As of 2026-04-30. Weights follow prices; the Taiwan figure moves with TSMC's share price every day.
- Country is incorporation as filed, not where revenue comes from. TSMC sells mostly to US customers; that does not make it a US holding here.
- Weights say nothing about return, currency or risk. Every non-US position is also a currency position; the filing converts each at the rate Vanguard used on the period date (the
exchangeRtfield), and a later episode will separate price moves from currency moves using those filed rates. - Only US-registered funds file N-PORT. This is the world as one large US fund sees it, not as the world's investors see it.
To check at the next filing (period 2026-07-31): whether Taiwan and Korea together remain above 13 cents, and whether the CN/HK split moves again. Recorded in the series ledger.
Data: VXUS on this site · Taiwan · Korea · Japan · country table for VXUS · the world map.