The long march of foreign investment by Chinese companies
Rhodium group report: by 2025 Beijing has invested 124 billion euros. Among the destinations less the USA and Eastern Europe, more Africa and the Middle East
China's investments abroad in 2025 have taken off but have changed direction: less and less the US and Eastern Europe, more and more Africa and the Middle East. The data come from the annual update of the China cross-border monitor by Rhodium group, the New York-based think tank that tracks the trend of Beijing's greenfield acquisitions and investments abroad.
In 2025, new projects initiated by Chinese companies reached USD 124 billion, the highest value in seven years, up 18% from 2024. Completed investments also increased by 14% to USD 73 billion, the highest level since 2019.
Today, Beijing's foreign minister will be in Hungary, where Chinese electric car giant Byd is building its first European plant, which will be completed by the end of the year. But although China continues to focus on some Eastern European countries for its investments in the Old Continent, and although the automotive sector still accounts for 13% of all Chinese projects abroad, Beijing's targets are changing. The interest of Chinese companies, say analysts at Rhodium group, is shifting from high-income economies to low- and middle-income ones.
In 2025, Asia remained the largest recipient of Chinese investments with around USD 40 billion, but projects for sub-Saharan Africa rose from 5% in 2020 to 22% of the total. Direct investments in North Africa and the Middle East also reached a new record, driven by Egypt and Morocco. North America and Europe, on the other hand, attracted a total of less than 20% of Beijing's capital, down sharply from the 70% collected in 2016.
Greenfield investments announced by Chinese companies last year were driven by projects in the mining, data centre and energy sectors. In contrast, Beijing companies' interest in manufacturing slowed down for the second year in a row: the creation of new plants declined in all regions, with a particularly significant drop in Central and Eastern Europe. The reason, according to Rhodium group analysts, is that exports continue to be China's dominant channel for serving foreign markets: "Large greenfield projects by companies such as Byd have made headlines," write the monitor's authors, "but the reality is that Chinese companies have been building production capacity at home at a much faster pace than production abroad since the pandemic, taking advantage of the greater availability of domestic capital resulting from the reduction in real estate sector debt.
