Foreign investors poured $232.2 billion into US businesses in 2025, a jump of $76.8 billion, or 49.5 percent, from the year before. The figures come from preliminary statistics released by the US Bureau of Economic Analysis and cover money spent to acquire, establish, or expand American companies.
The vast majority of that spending went toward buying existing businesses. Acquisition expenditures totaled $218.4 billion. Investors spent $9.2 billion to expand businesses they already owned, and $4.6 billion to establish entirely new US operations. When planned future spending is added in, total projected expenditures reached $284.5 billion.
Manufacturing dominated the investment breakdown. The sector pulled in $121.8 billion, accounting for 52.5 percent of all new foreign direct investment. Within manufacturing, the largest chunk, $50.7 billion, went into publishing industries. Chemicals manufacturing came in second at $45.4 billion, followed by plastics and rubber products at $19 billion.
Japan was the top investing country, committing $50.5 billion. Germany ranked second at $26.7 billion, and Canada came in third at $23.5 billion. By region, Europe led all others with $116.6 billion, or just over half of total investment. Asia and the Pacific placed second with $71.9 billion.
California attracted the most investment of any state, taking in $59.7 billion in first-year expenditures. Texas was second at $21.5 billion, and Pennsylvania third at $20.9 billion.
The report also tracked what the BEA calls greenfield investment, which covers money spent to build new US businesses or expand existing foreign-owned ones. That total came to $13.8 billion in 2025. Transportation and warehousing led greenfield spending at $3.6 billion, followed by computers and electronics manufacturing at $2 billion and chemicals manufacturing at $1.8 billion.
For greenfield projects specifically, investors from Asia and the Pacific contributed the most, spending $8.3 billion. Australia led that group at $3 billion, followed by South Korea at $2.2 billion and Japan at $1.7 billion. Louisiana received the highest level of greenfield investment among states at $3 billion, followed by Arizona at $2.7 billion and Texas at $1.9 billion.
Employment tied to newly acquired, established, or expanded foreign-owned businesses in 2025 stood at 213,100 workers. Current employment at acquired enterprises alone was 211,700.
