China’s investment boom has bolstered its role in the global economy: The country leads global investment with $5.9 trillion annually, dominating sectors such as machinery and electronics. For instance, in electronics industries such as semiconductors, China attracted 53 percent of all investment in 2024, McKinsey’s Anna Kortis, Jan Mischke, Chris Bradley, Sylvain Johansson, Shubham Singhal, and coauthors note. Meanwhile, the United States draws more than half of global investment in information and communications technology and financial services, and the EU-27 continues to attract a large share of investment in automotive and professional services. Rebalancing investment would require a boost in productivity and innovation, specialization in less cost-sensitive industries, and policies to level the playing field.
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Horizontal stacked bar chart showing the share of global productive investment by economy across 13 sectors in 2024, with total investment shown for each sector. China is the largest investor in seven sectors and has the highest share overall in machinery (62%), electronics (49%), basic manufacturing (44%), chemicals (about 37%), agriculture (35%), utilities (27%), and automotive (about 26%). The United States leads in pharmaceuticals, other services, professional services, information and communications technology (ICT), and financial services, with particularly large shares in ICT (53%) and financial services (51%). The rest of the world leads mining (57%) and wholesale and retail trade (27%). China's investment share varies widely by sector, ranging from just 1% in financial services and 6% in ICT to more than half of global investment in machinery. Sector investment totals also vary substantially, from approximately $0.3 trillion in pharmaceuticals to $4.9 trillion in other services. The exhibit highlights that China's global investment is concentrated in manufacturing and industrial sectors, while the United States dominates knowledge-intensive service sectors and the rest of the world accounts for the largest share in mining and wholesale and retail trade.
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Source: S&P Global Market Intelligence, OECD, Oxford Economics (China), and McKinsey Global Institute analysis.
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