$259.6 Billion in 2017: New FDI Numbers from BEA

Expenditures by foreign direct investors to acquire, establish, or expand U.S. businesses totaled $259.6 billion in 2017, down 32 percent from $379.7 billion in 2016.

Additional highlights of the statistics on new foreign direct investment for 2017:

Expenditures for acquisitions were $253.2 billion, expenditures to establish new U.S. businesses were $4.1 billion, and expenditures to expand existing foreign-owned businesses were $2.4 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 2017, which include both first-year spending and planned spending in other years, totaled $24.8 billion.

Employment at newly acquired, established, or expanded foreign-owned businesses in the United States was 554,300 in 2017.

For more information, read the full report.