Richard Brian/Reuters
- Billionaire investor Mark Mobius confirmed all of his money is outside the US.
- That's because he's so bullish on emerging markets, he told CNBC.
- Mobius said he is focusing his investments on Taiwan, South Korea, and India.
Billionaire investor Mark Mobius confirmed he has no US investments, saying he is bullish on emerging markets in Asia.
"I'm all international and emerging markets in particular," the Mobius Capital Partners founder said in an interview with CNBC on Thursday.
Mobius said he is focusing his investments in Taiwan, South Korea, and India. But he sounded more cautious on China, saying he is looking at Hong Kong-listed companies because they have attractive valuations.
He added that the world's second-largest economy is still going through a "tremendous adjustment" that will make it "very difficult for many companies."
Companies in countries like Korea are also exposed to China as they export to customers there, and are looking to diversify to reduce their dependence on China, Mobius said.
As a result, he is looking for companies that have found alternative markets, while acknowledging that Korean and Taiwanese companies would have trouble completely cutting off their exposure to China.
"We want companies that have been diversified internationally, and we're finding a number of these companies with incredible technology so they're able to diversify their investor base," he said.
Mobius previously cautioned investors on China, as he was unable to withdraw his funds from his Shanghai HSBC account due to the government's capital controls. But he later said those issues were resolved.
And while some observers have expressed concern over potential conflict between China and Taiwan, Mobius believed tensions were unlikely to boil over anytime soon.
Any attack delivered on Taiwan would likely face resistance from the US, and China's economy is dependent on US markets, he said.
Mobius has also turned more bullish on India, as companies like Apple are shifting towards India in order to diversify their business away from China. India's population of 1.4 billion is also larger than China's, and its GDP is growing at a rate of 7% a year. Those factors can help the nation become a significant supply base in the future, he said.
In Korea, Mobius was enticed by the nation's impressive technological developments, pointing to one company he invested in that's developing machines to smooth over wrinkles.
Other Wall Street commentators have turned optimistic on emerging market investments as financial conditions tighten in the US. Emerging markets could top the US in the global stock market starting in 2030, Goldman Sachs estimated. Meanwhile, the MSCI Emerging Markets exchange traded fund has risen 10% this year.