Canadians often hesitate on U.S. stocks for a few fair reasons. Valuations can look stretched, the headlines can feel noisy, and many investors already get plenty of indirect U.S. exposure through exchange traded funds (ETF), pensions, and North American funds. Global stocks can be a better answer when you want growth without doubling down on the same market.
That matters because Canadians still show a strong home-country bias. Vanguard found domestic equity portfolios held about 50% in Canadian stocks even though Canada made up only 2.6% of the global equity market. In other words, looking abroad is not exotic. It is just sensible diversification. So let’s look at some options out there in the big wide world.
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ASML
ASML Holding (FRA: ASME) is a strong place to start because it sits at the heart of the semiconductor supply chain. The Dutch company makes the lithography machines chipmakers need to produce advanced semiconductors, and no one really replaces it at the high end. That gives it a rare kind of moat. Over the last year, the story has been driven by artificial intelligence (AI) demand, bigger customer spending plans, and a recovery in chip-equipment orders. Most recently, in January, ASML topped a US$500 billion market value as TSMC lifted 2026 capital spending, a clear sign the market still sees strong demand ahead.
The earnings have backed that up. ASML reported 2025 net sales of €32.7 billion, net income of €9.6 billion, and basic earnings per share of €24.73. It also guided for 2026 sales of €34 billion to €39 billion, with a gross margin of 51% to 53%, and launched a new €12 billion buyback program. This is not a cheap stock in the bargain-bin sense, trading around 48 times earnings. Still, when a company has this kind of pricing power and technical edge, investors often pay up for it.
SAP
SAP (FRA: SAP) offers a different type of global growth. It is Europe’s largest software company, and it helps businesses run finance, supply chains, procurement, HR, and cloud-based enterprise systems. That makes it less flashy than a consumer tech darling, but arguably more durable. Over the last year, SAP kept pushing its cloud and AI strategy, though the market got fussy in January when its 2026 cloud forecast came in a little softer than hoped. That reaction looked dramatic, but it did not erase the bigger trend: SAP is still becoming more cloud-driven and more profitable.
The numbers are still quite strong. SAP reported 2025 cloud revenue of €21 billion, up 23%, total revenue up 8%, and a non-IFRS operating profit of €10.4 billion, while total cloud backlog rose 22% to about €77 billion. For 2026, it expects cloud revenue of €25.8 billion to €26.2 billion and non-IFRS operating profit of €11.9 billion to €12.3 billion. That is solid growth for a company of this size. The valuation is not exactly cheap, but after the January sell-off, it looks more reasonable than it did at the 2025 peak. For Canadians who want global growth without buying U.S. stocks, SAP fits because it combines sticky enterprise software with rising AI and cloud exposure.
Bottom line
Put the two together and the case is pretty simple. ASML gives you exposure to the machinery behind the AI and chip boom. SAP gives you exposure to the software backbone businesses they keep relying on. Neither depends on U.S. consumer spending, and both bring sectors the Canadian market does not offer in much depth. For Canadians who want global growth without adding another U.S. ticker, these two names are a strong place to begin.
