SMSF investing: 20 most popular international shares

They’re some of the biggest and most dynamic companies in the world, but there’s a catch – they’re all based overseas. Australians who want direct exposure to their growth need to invest in international shares listed on overseas stock exchanges.

There are good reasons for making the effort.

Gaining access to international markets provides opportunities that are not available in Australia, which represents less than 2% of the global share market value.

Australian shares are heavily concentrated in the financial and resources sectors, which means local investors are vulnerable to a downturn or negative sentiment in these industries. What’s more, some of the world’s most dynamic and profitable companies, and industries such as technology and pharmaceuticals, are not well represented on the ASX.

International shares also offer geographic diversity. If the Australian market is underperforming, your international shares may provide a buffer to your local equities.

Currency risk adds another layer of complexity when you invest in international shares. The return on your investments can be influenced negatively, or positively, by the value of the Australian dollar against the currency of the overseas assets you invest in. Whether that currency exposure is hedged or unhedged determines how much of the movement reaches your return.

Investors with a relatively small amount of money to invest overseas, or who lack the time or confidence to invest directly, generally opt to invest in international shares via a managed fund or exchange-traded fund (ETF) for low-cost instant diversification.

But some intrepid SMSF members with sufficient funds to build a diversified international portfolio of shares, or the conviction to select certain stocks, are choosing to invest directly. Direct international shares were one of only two asset classes to gain popularity among Class SMSFs in the 2026 financial year, alongside ETFs.

The 20 most popular international shares SMSFs invest in

We live in a world where most of us carry a mobile, work on a laptop or tablet, shop online, tap and pay and spend hours each day checking our social media, streaming or googling information. So, it will come as no surprise that technology giants continued to dominate the top 20 direct international share holdings, accounting for 80.2% of the top 20 by market value.

In recent years, this trend has gained further momentum from the rapid development of AI.

The top three were unchanged in 2026: Microsoft, Alphabet (Google) and Amazon, held by 29.3%, 26.8% and 25.0% of Class SMSFs with direct international shares.

The big mover was NVIDIA, which climbed from fifth to fourth as the proportion of funds holding it jumped from 13.1% to 19.2%, reflecting its exposure to the growth in AI. That pushed Apple down to fifth on 17.5%.

Three new names joined the list, all of them technology companies. Data analytics group Palantir Technologies entered in 16th spot, held by 5.1% of funds with direct international shares, followed by streaming group Netflix in 17th on 5.0% and ride-share and delivery group Uber Technologies in 20th on 4.7%.

Payments heavyweights Visa and Mastercard remained on the list in sixth and 15th place as consumers continue to shift away from cash. Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway also held its ground in ninth.

In a sign of the times, three semiconductor companies now sit in a row: Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. in 11th, ASML Holding in 12th and Broadcom in 13th.

The top 20 list below is ranked by the percentage of SMSFs with international shares that hold each stock. Ranked by money instead, the order looks different. Alphabet became the largest holding by value, at 7.5% of SMSF international share investments, up from 5.2%. Apple was second on 5.3% and NVIDIA third on 4.4%. Microsoft, which led this measure a year earlier with 6.3%, slipped to fourth on 4.0%, with Tesla fifth on 3.8%. Between them those five accounted for a quarter of all SMSF money in direct international shares.

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Top 20 international shares held by SMSFs

Source: Class. Data as at 30 June 2026, derived from 198,898 SMSFs that use Class software.

Concentration among the largest holdings barely moved. The 20 largest international shareholdings by value accounted for 42.2% of direct international share investments, against 42.1% a year earlier.