Now is the Time to Invest in the United States

Author: Deputy Secretary of State Christopher Landau

This week, I delivered a keynote address at the SelectUSA Investment Summit. The summit connects overseas companies with potential financial backers, industry experts, economic development organizations and others to help them locate facilities in the U.S. This, in turn, spurs U.S. economic and job growth. This article is adapted from my remarks.

Since the first Investment Summit in 2011, SelectUSA has attracted thousands of international companies and economic development representatives, generating over $135 billion in new investment projects across the United States and its territories.

Right now, we stand at a pivotal moment in American economic history. With his historic and decisive actions on rebalancing global trade policy, deregulation, and tax cuts, President Trump is sending a clear message: It’s time to invest in America. We are making commercial investment a top priority.

Under President Trump, the principal objective of our foreign policy is to secure real results for American businesses and American workers. To countries around the world, here is my message: We’re an administration you can do business with.

This is not only a focus in Washington. The State Department has over 1,000 commercial officers stationed at our embassies around the world. Our worldwide missions stand ready to help foreign businesses and investors do business with American public and private sector counterparts to leverage our leading companies, technology, and workforce.

This year, 15 chiefs of mission traveled with their delegations to SelectUSA. I hope to see that number doubled for this event next year. It’s my personal goal to make sure our embassy teams increase economic and commercial ties with countries around the globe.

This is personal. My father was a career diplomat who started his career in the Foreign Service in the late 1950s as the commercial officer at the U.S. Embassy in Montevideo, Uruguay. He joined the State Department because President Eisenhower wanted people who had experience in the private sector to promote commercial diplomacy.

He always said a good ambassador is, first and foremost, a good commercial attaché, and I took that to heart.

I know how this works. During the first Trump Administration, I was the American ambassador to Mexico, a country that has significant investments in our country, just as American companies have significant investments in Mexico. I saw firsthand how foreign investment impacts the United States.

The United States remains the most stable investment destination for foreign companies. Our capital markets are the highest performing and most liquid. Our businesses are dynamic and innovative. Kearney’s 2025 Foreign Direct Investment Confidence Index, a survey of the top corporate senior executives in the world, ranked the United States as the top destination for foreign direct investment for the 13th consecutive year. We welcome job-creating investment and support maintaining an open investment environment that can benefit our economy and those of nations that invest with us.

In the first 100 days of this administration, President Trump has secured over $9 trillion in commitments from foreign investors. He’s committed to strengthening domestic capacity in sectors like advanced technology, critical minerals, energy, and manufacturing. His unwavering commitment to revitalizing American industry will reinforce the United States’ place as a global leader in innovation and economic growth, making both the United States and countries that invest here more prosperous.

We urge foreign businesses to work with our missions and let them work with you to identify investment opportunities in the United States. Now is a better time than ever to invest in the United States. We welcome job-creating investment and support maintaining an open investment environment that can benefit our economy and those of nations that invest with us. If you have investment opportunities in your country that would benefit from the investment of the United States’s capital markets, let us know. Commercial diplomacy is a two-way street.

I believe every investment is not only a business opportunity but a diplomatic opportunity, as well.

Christopher Landau was sworn in as the 23rd Deputy Secretary of State on March 25, 2025. Deputy Secretary Landau returns to the Department as a former Ambassador to Mexico who also grew up overseas in a Foreign Service family. In addition to his professional and personal experience in diplomacy, he brings an extensive legal background to his current position.