Expenditures by foreign direct investors to acquire, establish, or expand U.S. businesses totaled $420.7 billion in 2015, an increase of 68 percent from 2014, when expenditures were $250.6 billion; according to the Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) in statistics released today.
Some additional highlights of the statistics on new foreign direct investment for 2015:
- Expenditures for acquisitions were $408.1 billion. Expenditures to establish new U.S. businesses were $11.2 billion, and expenditures to expand existing foreign-owned businesses were $1.4 billion.
- Total planned greenfield expenditures—expenditures to either establish a new U.S. business or to expand an existing foreign-owned U.S. business—for investment initiated in 2015, which include both first-year expenditures and planned spending in other years, totaled $31.2 billion.
- Current employment at newly acquired, established, or expanded foreign-owned businesses in the United States was 422,200. Total planned employment was 461,600.
In conjunction with today’s release, BEA is introducing new statistics for 2014 and 2015 on the activities of newly acquired, established, or expanded U.S. affiliates by state, country, and industry. These new statistics supplement the statistics on expenditures for new investment and include current and planned employment and balance sheet and income statement items, specifically sales, net income, assets, liabilities, and total owner’s equity, for the affiliates.
For more information, read the full report.