VEU: One Fund for the World Outside the United States

VEU is the Vanguard FTSE All-World ex-US ETF. It trades on NYSE Arca in New York, and it launched on March 2, 2007. One share is a stake in thousands of large and mid-size companies listed outside the United States, in developed markets and in emerging markets. This page explains that fund, why a broad index can survive a single bankruptcy, and which European share follows the same index. If you wanted the fund that also owns the United States, that is a different product, explained on the FTSE All-World page. It is an explanation. It is not a recommendation to buy or sell VEU, or any other fund. Read the documents, ask your broker the questions at the bottom, and decide for yourself.

The idea

People keep building companies, and companies that sell something the world wants tend to grow. You do not know which name wins the next ten years. A fund like VEU is a way to own a wide list of the large and mid-size companies outside the United States, and to let the list update itself.

The list is a set of published rules, run by FTSE Russell. It is not a manager picking favorites, and it is not a model handing out scores for "best company." A stock has to trade on an eligible market. It has to be large enough, inside its region, to count as large or mid size. Enough of its shares have to be available to outside investors. That available piece is the free float. The index then weights each company by that size. Vanguard's US ETF uses full replication, so it buys the stocks in the index.

In this fund, a large weight means the market is paying up for that company, and the company still passes the screens. A strong business that stays large stays in. A fashionable business that investors have bid up is large too, and it stays in while the price stays high. The rule does not ask whether you admire the company.

One basket, many kinds of business. Original illustration for ThriveInMarkets.

If one company goes bankrupt

Suppose a holding fails. The share price falls, and the weight in the index falls with it, on the days the market is open. Nobody has to call a meeting for that part. If the company becomes too small, or it no longer passes the listing and float tests, FTSE Russell removes it on a published review calendar. The weight it used to have is then carried by the companies that remain. A different company can enter later, when it grows into the size band and passes the same screens.

The fund does not go hunting for your next favorite stock. It runs the same size rule again. One bankruptcy is one line in a list of roughly 3,800. The other lines are still there. A single failure hurts that line. It does not empty the fund. The same wheel turns the other way. A company that grows, and still qualifies, becomes a larger part of the fund without a special order. On June 30, 2026, TSMC was 4.7% of VEU and Samsung Electronics was 2.8%. Those weights belong to the market. They will be different at the next fact sheet.

One company can go dark. The rest of the list stays lit. Original illustration for ThriveInMarkets.

What VEU held on June 30, 2026

Vanguard's fact sheet for that date puts the ETF share class at $67.3 billion. The wider fund, which also includes Vanguard's mutual-fund shares of the same portfolio, was $94.9 billion. The expense ratio cited from the prospectus is 0.04% a year. Dividends are quarterly. The ETF held 3,858 stocks. The index held 3,763.

The ten largest country weights, as a share of the common stock, were Japan 15.5%, Taiwan 9.0%, the United Kingdom 8.1%, Korea 7.7%, Canada 7.5%, China 6.8%, Switzerland 5.3%, France 5.2%, Germany 4.7%, and India 4.2%. Financials were 23.2% of the fund and technology was 20.3%.

Tokyo Stock Exchange. Japan was the largest country weight on June 30, 2026. Photograph: Fg2, public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.

The ten largest holdings were 16.3% of net assets: TSMC 4.7%, Samsung Electronics 2.8%, SK hynix 2.4%, ASML 1.9%, Tencent 0.9%, HSBC 0.8%, Roche 0.7%, Novartis 0.7%, Royal Bank of Canada 0.7%, and AstraZeneca 0.7%. Four companies are a real slice of the fund. They are not the whole fund.

Past returns, on net asset value, through that same June 30: 28.27% over the prior year, 10.14% a year over ten years, and 5.64% a year from the March 2, 2007 launch. Periods under a year on that sheet are cumulative. The longer figures are average annual returns. The hot year and the since-launch average are the same fund. A strong year is not the long record, and none of these numbers is a forecast.

The European version

Many retail accounts in the European Union cannot buy the New York listing. A broker there generally needs a European key information document, and a US ETF such as VEU usually does not publish one. The share built for those accounts is a UCITS fund. Some UK accounts can still reach the New York ticker. The way to know is to ask the broker, or to read the message the order ticket gives you.

Vanguard's own UCITS version is the Vanguard FTSE All-World Ex-U.S. UCITS ETF, US dollar accumulating class, ISIN IE0009A5ADV9. The fact sheet dated August 31, 2026 says it launched on August 18, 2026. The ongoing charges figure is 0.12%. Total assets were $35 million, and this share class was $26 million. It is an Irish UCITS. It holds stocks, and it holds a sample of the index rather than every name: 2,340 stocks on that date, against a few thousand in the full index. Dividends on this class stay inside the fund. They are not paid out as cash.

The letters on the screen change with the exchange. On that Vanguard sheet they are London in pounds VXUS, London in dollars VXUA, SIX in dollars VXUS, Euronext Amsterdam in euros VXUS, Deutsche Börse in euros VXUS, and Borsa Italiana in euros VXUS. Every one of those lines is ISIN IE0009A5ADV9. Type the ISIN into the broker. The ticker VXUS in the United States is a different fund, Vanguard's Total International Stock ETF, which also includes smaller companies. Same four letters. Different portfolio.

On August 31, 2026 the largest UCITS holdings were the same kind of list: TSMC 4.5%, Samsung 2.4%, SK hynix 1.6%, ASML 1.6%, Tencent 0.9%, and the top ten about 14.7%. Japan was 15.6%. There is no performance history yet. Vanguard says those figures start after one year. Read the KID for your own country before you rely on a marketing sheet. The August sheet tells professional readers to use the prospectus and the KIID, and it also says the Irish fund is registered for public distribution in certain European countries. The document your broker hands you is the one that applies to you.

The New York fund is the large, established market. The European share of the same index is still the small new room. Original illustration for ThriveInMarkets, not a photograph of either exchange.

Paternoster Square, home of the London Stock Exchange, one of the venues that lists the European share. Ramón Cutanda López, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

A second UCITS fund tracks the same FTSE All-World ex US Index. Xtrackers FTSE All-World ex US UCITS ETF 1C, ISIN IE000YKHGYN2, ticker AWEX, launched on April 8, 2026. DWS lists an all-in fee of 0.15% and fund assets of about €46.5 million as of September 21, 2026. That fund is also new, and also small.

The index can match the New York fund. The market in the shares will not. VEU's ETF class was $67.3 billion and has traded since 2007. The European Vanguard class was $26 million after two weeks of life. A small fund can show a wide gap between the price you pay and the value of the stocks inside. Look at the bid and the offer, in money, before the fee difference matters. A 0.12% fund you can actually trade, in an account that accepts the KID, can be the relevant product. A 0.04% fund your broker will not sell you is not a better deal.

Watch the index name. A fund that says MSCI World ex USA is developed markets only. Taiwan, Korea, China, and India sit outside that index, so TSMC, Samsung, and Tencent sit outside it too. The KID names the index. The adjective on the brochure does not.

Buying it through a broker you trust

You buy an ETF through a broker. Interactive Brokers and Revolut are two names people use. They are examples of brokers, not the product, and this page has no referral link to either of them. Use a broker you trust. Then check whether that broker offers this exact share to a person in your country.

Search the ticker VEU only if your account is allowed to buy US-listed ETFs. Search IE0009A5ADV9 if you need the European Vanguard share. If the ISIN does not appear, that broker does not offer this line today. Another regulated broker might. A fund launched in August 2026 will be missing from plenty of menus.

Before any order, read the prospectus and the KID, or the US summary prospectus. Check the commission, the foreign-exchange charge, and any custody fee. Check whether the share pays income out or rolls it up. The Vanguard UCITS class above rolls dividends up. If you want cash paid out, ask whether a distributing class exists. Do not assume this one pays you.

Tax sits on top of the fund, and it depends on where you live. A US-listed ETF and an Ireland-domiciled UCITS are not treated the same way for a European holder. Dividend withholding can differ. Estate rules can differ for a person outside the United States who dies holding US-listed shares. Those are questions for a tax adviser where you live.

What can go wrong

The United States is missing. Over long stretches, US companies have been more than half of a full global stock index. VEU will not collect a decade in which American companies do the growing. If you already own US stocks in another fund, that gap can be what you want. If VEU is your only stock fund, you have left out the largest market on purpose.

Currencies move. The stocks trade in yen, euros, won, Taiwan dollars, pounds, and other currencies. A return measured in dollars includes those moves. A European holder of the UCITS share has the same stocks, a dollar share-class price on this line, and their own currency on the way back to the account.

Emerging markets are inside the fund. China and India are on the country list above. Those markets can fall harder than Japan or the UK, and they can be harder to trade. You also own large companies you may dislike, because the rule is size. A loser stays until its weight has fallen or a review removes it. The list does update itself. It is not a shield, and it is not instant.

The European funds are weeks or months old, with assets in the tens of millions. Ask for the live spread. And the value can fall. The since-launch average above runs through June 30, 2026, and averages hide losing years. You can get back less than you put in.

If the ISIN, the spread, or the tax answer is fuzzy, leave the order alone and ask again. That is the research. A licensed adviser who knows your situation is the right person for the decision. This site is not that adviser.

VEU is a cheap way to own a size-weighted list of large and mid-size companies outside the United States, and to let a failed company shrink out under published rules. The European Vanguard share follows that same index, at a higher fee, in a fund that is still very small. Either one can fit a person who wants the world outside America and who has read the documents. Growth of those companies is the hope behind the index. It is not a promise, and nothing on this page is a suggestion to buy.

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