Graphic on New Foreign Direct Investment Expenditures by Type, 1996-2018.

On July 2, the Commerce Department's Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) released updated annual statistics on the amount and characteristics of new investments in the United States by foreign investors.



Expenditures by foreign direct investors to acquire, establish, or expand U.S. businesses totaled $296.4 billion in 2018, up 8.7 percent from $272.8 billion in 2017.

Additional highlights of the statistics on new foreign direct investment for 2018:

Expenditures for acquisitions were $287.3 billion, expenditures to establish new U.S. businesses were $5.3 billion, and expenditures to expand existing foreign-owned businesses were $3.8 billion.

Total planned greenfield investment expenditures—expenditures to establish new U.S. businesses and to expand existing foreign-owned U.S. businesses—for investments initiated in 2018, which include both first-year spending and planned spending in other years, totaled $30.8 billion.

Employment at newly acquired, established, or expanded foreign-owned businesses in the United States was 430,600 in 2018.

For more information, read the full report.