The number of foreign direct investments in Germany has dropped for the third time in a row. The United States remains the most important investor in front of Switzerland and China. Amazon, Microsoft and Apple invest billions in this country.
Last year, the number of foreign investments in Germany dropped for the third time in a row, as the federal economist Germany Trade & Invest (GTAI) announced. In 2024, the GTAI registered 1,724 new settlements and extensions. In 2023 there were 1,759 projects, in 2022 1,783 and 2021 a total of 1,806. “Germany remains a sought-after and valued location,” said GTAI managing director Robert Hermann despite the decline of two percent.
Compared to other European countries, Germany is somewhat better: Last year, foreign direct investments in Europe with 4.6 percent overall fell much more, in Western Europe by almost six percent. The German economy against the trend has shrunk the second year in a row, which triggered a debate about falling competitiveness.
“Many very, very large investments”
The foreign companies have announced investments of 23.2 billion euros. This is less than in the two record years 2023 (34.8 billion euros) and 2022 (25.3 billion euros), which are also characterized by catch-up effects after the Corona pandemic, but more together than in 2019 to 2021.
“We see many very, very large investments,” said Hermann. “Seven projects alone have a volume of more than 500 million euros each.” Almost two percent of the total project would have a volume of at least 100 million euros.
Thousands of new jobs
The biggest individual project is that of Amazon: The US group puts 8.8 billion euros in the Cloud infrastructure of Amazon Web Services (AWS) in the Rhine-Main area, another 1.2 billion euros in logistics, robotics and corporate centers. The US software giant Microsoft wants to put 3.2 billion euros in AI infrastructure and cloud capacities, while Apple spends a lot of money to expand its research center in Munich.
The United States has also remained the most important foreign investor because of these three major projects. 229 projects for settlement or expansion came from the United States last year. In second place, Switzerland follows with 202 projects before China with 199. Up to 31,000 new jobs have been announced by the investors – as many as in 2020. “But we assume that there will be more, because job plans are not always mentioned,” said Hermann.
Most of the projects do not apply to digitization areas (17 percent), energy & resources (16 percent), electronics and automation (15 percent).
Armor and Security industry Is interested
Despite an impending trade war due to the high punitive tariffs announced by US President Donald Trump, the GTAI has remained high in the first months of 2025. “The interest is unbroken, even from large Asian countries,” said GTAI manager Achim Hartig, who is responsible for promoting investors. “Last but not least, political stability and legal certainty speak for our location.”
It is also perceived that the new federal government wants to put hundreds of billions of euros into the infrastructure, as well as defense. “There are significantly more innovative companies from the security and armaments industry that look at Germany,” said Hartig.
German industry is at struggle
Despite the continuing interest of foreign investors at the Germany location, the debate about falling competitiveness should last. As a current survey by the IFO Institute shows, German industry is increasingly seeking behind in global competition.
24.4 percent of companies recorded falling international competitiveness towards countries outside the EU in April. In January the proportion was still 23.9 percent. There is also no all -clear in the competition within the European Union (EU). At least here, however, the proportion of those who report dwindling competitiveness decreased from 20.9 to 13.4 percent.
“In an international comparison, German industry is gradually losing a peat power,” said IFO conveyor chief Klaus Wohlrabe. The challenges in international competition remained huge. “Due to the recent customs disputes, the balance of power in the global markets is currently sorting up,” added Wohlrabe with a view to the higher tariffs announced by Trump.
