Five strategic industries accounted for 44% of global greenfield investment in 2025, up sharply from 16% in 2020, underscoring a major shift in international capital flows toward sectors considered critical to future economic growth and technological competitiveness, according to the World Investment Report 2026.
The report, published by the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), said the value of announced greenfield investment projects across these industries surged from $109 billion in 2020 to $576 billion in 2025.
UNCTAD identified the five strategic sectors as artificial intelligence infrastructure, advanced and critical technologies, critical minerals, energy transition technologies and services, and semiconductors. The report noted that investment in these industries remains highly concentrated rather than evenly distributed across countries.
AI infrastructure attracted the largest share of strategic investment, fueled by rising spending on data centers, cloud computing capacity, and the digital infrastructure required to support artificial intelligence applications.
Meanwhile, the semiconductor industry recorded the fastest growth among the five sectors, with announced investment expanding at an average annual rate of 54% between 2020 and 2025.
According to UNCTAD, the rapid increase reflects the growing strategic importance of semiconductor manufacturing as demand accelerates for chips used in artificial intelligence, advanced computing, and other emerging technologies.
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