Paris (awp/afp) – Global industrial investments have returned to growth in 2025, with a 14% increase in volume (4500 projects) and a 32% increase in value ($1800 billion, or €1530 billion), thanks to the United States and data centers, according to a study unveiled on Monday.
Between 2024 and 2025, the United States, which saw its industrial investment amounts almost double, rising from $404 to $793 billion, climbed to the top spot, according to this survey released by the Trendeo firm, the CESI industrialization institute, and the McKinsey consulting firm.
Conversely, between 2022 and 2025, China saw its industrial investment amounts divided by 12, dropping “from $555 billion in 2022 to $46 billion in 2025,” according to the study, which is based on industrial investment projects of more than $30 million or those that create more than 50 jobs, marking “a shake-up in the hierarchy of major geographic areas.”
In terms of investment destinations, “Asia, which was receiving an average of $265 billion per year since 2016, sees its received investments drop to $131 billion in 2025. Thus, the region is redeploying, especially through Chinese investments abroad,” particularly in electric mobility, note the study authors.
Conversely, the American continent has started to rise again, especially driven by the United States, which “attract 44% of global investment and 26% of project volume,” according to the survey.
However, this trend is fragile, with the country not immune to “reversals in trends,” given the concentration of 75% of these investments in three sectors: electronics/semiconductors, pharmaceuticals, and data centers.
In 2025, the latter accounted for almost a third of significant international investments, with nearly $580 billion in investments, according to the study.
In this shifting landscape of industrial investments, France “emerges as the 4th global destination for industrial investments in the 2021-2025 period ($139 billion received), but the impact on the country in terms of jobs needs to be put into perspective: “47% are investments that France makes in other countries,” the study emphasizes.
This French dynamic, however, allows the European Union to surpass India in 2025.
afp/cw
