Here’s something that rarely makes it into the conversation about work in America: 15 million jobs at companies owned by foreign investors. That’s not outsourcing. That’s the opposite — it’s international capital coming here, building here, and putting Americans to work.
Becker & Poliakoff, a law firm that helps international businesses invest in the United States, released a new report on The State of Foreign Direct Investment in America after analyzing the most recent full-year federal data through 2024 and issued a report today. Â
The report finds the United States attracted $279 billion in foreign direct investment last year — more than double what China pulled in at $116 billion. Behind that number are assembly lines, semiconductor fabs, auto plants, and distribution centers staffed by American workers.
The distinction matters because the debate around globalization and jobs has long defaulted to a single narrative: foreign means threat. The FDI data tells a more complicated story.
South Carolina is not a state that typically leads national economic conversations. But when it comes to foreign investment and employment, it sits at the top of every ranking that matters to working people. Eight percent of all jobs in South Carolina come from majority foreign-owned companies — the highest share of any state in the country. That is one in every 12 jobs, held by real workers, at companies headquartered abroad but operating right here.
That figure reframes what foreign investment actually means at the ground level. It is not an abstraction. It is a paycheck.
At the dollar level, Texas leads all states with $22.8 billion in new FDI — driven significantly by Samsung’s $45 billion semiconductor manufacturing expansion, one of the largest foreign investments in American history. Georgia, despite ranking eighth in population, came in second at $16.3 billion, fueled by Hyundai and Kia building out major electric vehicle manufacturing operations in the state. California ranked third at $12.9 billion, followed by Ohio, North Carolina, Massachusetts, Florida, New York, Virginia, and Washington.
Manufacturing now holds a cumulative foreign direct investment position of $2.4 trillion in the United States — more than double the next closest category. That is a global vote of confidence in American production capacity, arriving at a moment when rebuilding domestic manufacturing has become a rare point of bipartisan agreement.
For men without four-year degrees — a group that has faced decades of labor market erosion — manufacturing jobs represent some of the most accessible pathways to stable, middle-class employment. Foreign-owned manufacturers are building those pathways.
Japan is now America’s single largest foreign investor, with a cumulative FDI position that grew from $694 billion in 2020 to $819 billion in 2024, edging Canada’s $812 billion. These are not speculative financial flows. They are factories, facilities, and long-term operational commitments.
Foreign direct investment reinforces the dollar’s status as the world’s reserve currency, expands Washington’s ability to impose economic sanctions when needed, and strengthens the web of allied economic relationships that define American influence globally. The U.S. attracting more than twice China’s FDI total is not just a business metric — it is a measure of where the world’s capital allocators see stability, rule of law, and long-term opportunity.
That combination — strategic leverage abroad and real jobs at home — is the case for why winning the FDI competition matters. And right now, by the numbers, America is winning it.
