Paris (awp/afp) – Global industrial investments have regained growth in 2025, with a 14% increase in volume (4500 projects) and a 32% increase in value ($1.8 trillion, or €1.53 trillion), thanks to the United States and data centers, according to a study unveiled on Monday.
Between 2024 and 2025, the United States, which nearly doubled their industrial investment amounts, rising from $404 to $793 billion, rose to the top spot, as revealed by the Trendeo firm, the CESI industrialization institute, and McKinsey consulting.
On the contrary, between 2022 and 2025, China saw its industrial investment amounts decrease 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 over $30 million or those resulting in over 50 jobs created, and notes “a shake-up in the hierarchy of the major geographical areas.”
In terms of investment destination, “Asia, which received an average of $265 billion per year since 2016, saw its investments drop to $131 billion in 2025. Thus, the region is realigning, particularly through Chinese investment abroad,” especially in electric mobility, note the authors of the study.
Conversely, the American continent has seen a rise, mainly driven by the United States, which “attract 44% of global investment and 26% of project volume,” according to the report.
However, this trend is fragile, as the country is not immune to “shifts in trends,” given that 75% of these investments are concentrated 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 fourth global destination for industrial investments in the 2021-2025 period (receiving $139 billion), but the impact on the country in terms of jobs is to be qualified: “47% are investments that France makes in other countries,” the study specifies.
However, this French dynamic allows the European Union to surpass India in 2025.
afp/cw
