China's outbound direct investment (ODI) maintained robust growth in 2025, with Chinese companies expanding their global presence while investing more capital into emerging sectors including the green and digital sectors. The sustained growth reflects Chinese companies' rising global competitiveness and their increasing ability to allocate resources worldwide and participate in the international division of labor, while deeper investment cooperation is also creating new opportunities for host economies. China's ODI flows climbed 11.1% to USD213.58 billion in 2025, with its investment stock standing at USD3.4 trillion, keeping the country among the world's top three investors for nine straight years.
China accounted for 7.4% of global outward investment, according to data jointly released by the Ministry of Commerce (MOFCOM), the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) and the State Administration of Foreign Exchange (SAFE). China's outbound investment covered 18 sectors of the national economy and was mainly concentrated in leasing and business services, wholesale and retail trade, manufacturing, and finance. In recent years, investment has steadily expanded into green and low-carbon sectors, the digital economy and green mineral resources, the data showed.
The continued growth of China's ODI shows that Chinese companies' global operations are entering a deeper stage of development, Hu Qimu, Professor at the Maritime Silk Road Institute of Huaqiao University, told the Global Times. “Their overseas expansion has gradually moved beyond simply exploring markets to industrial chain coordination, technological cooperation, green transformation and the digital economy,” Hu said. Chinese companies' global footprint and deeper integration into regional and global economies have helped strengthen their competitiveness while fueling industrial growth in host economies. Such investment also underpins the stability and security of global supply chains. By the end of 2025, Chinese investors had set up 58,000 overseas enterprises across 189 countries and regions. Those overseas entities employed 2.965 million foreign workers.
Cooperation under the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) delivered solid results in 2025. Chinese firms invested USD46.05 billion directly in Belt and Road partner countries last year, equivalent to 21.6% of China's total outbound direct investment flow. Around 22,000 overseas enterprises have been established in these countries, with related investment reaching USD407.25 billion.
Against the backdrop of continued uncertainties surrounding the global economic recovery, some countries are pushing so-called supply chain “de-risking” while introducing more investment and trade restrictions, Hu said. In this context, Chinese companies' continued expansion of international investment and industrial cooperation will help facilitate cross-border flows of capital, technology and production factors and strengthen industrial ties among different economies, according to Hu. The growth momentum has continued into 2026. From January to July, China's outbound direct investment across all industries reached CNY684.51 billion, up 2.8% year-on-year, the Global Times reports.
