July 1, 2020

Expenditures by foreign direct investors to acquire, establish, or expand U.S. businesses totaled $194.7 billion in 2019, down 37.7 percent from $312.5 billion in 2018.

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Additional highlights of the statistics on new foreign direct investment for 2019:

  • Expenditures for acquisitions were $190.7 billion, expenditures to establish new U.S. businesses were $2.5 billion, and expenditures to expand existing foreign‐owned businesses were $1.5 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 2019, which include both first‐year spending and planned spending in other years, totaled $12.9 billion.
  • Employment at newly acquired, established, or expanded foreign‐owned businesses in the United States was 210,600 in 2019.

For more information, read the full report.