A survey by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) indicates that Brazil received US$ 77 billion in foreign direct investment in 2025, a position lower only than that of the United States, with US$ 288 billion, and China, with US$ 80 billion. The amount surpassed the 2024 result by 23%, in a scenario where global flows grew by 6%, according to the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development, and was equivalent to 40% of the capital directed to Latin America and the Caribbean, according to ECLAC. The upward trajectory continued in 2026, as the Central Bank of Brazil recorded US$ 54.4 billion between January and July, a 24% increase year-over-year.<\/p>\n
The Brazilian performance contrasts with the 24% retraction in greenfield investments, aimed at new projects, in emerging economies, and was reinforced by the announcement, in December, of a US$ 40 billion data center to be built by ByteDance, the parent company of TikTok, in Pec\u00e9m (CE), powered by wind energy. In the breakdown by origin, the most recent data, referring to 2024, shows the United States with 26% of the stock, followed by France (8%), Uruguay (7%), Spain (6%) and the Netherlands (5%). According to economist Carla Beni, a professor at FGV, the Chinese concentrate efforts on heavy infrastructure, such as electricity grids, electric vehicle assembly plants and mining, and the Brazil-China Business Council recorded that the country was the main global destination for Chinese capital in 2025, with US$ 6.1 billion distributed across 52 projects, a 45% increase. European funds, on the other hand, lead consortiums in the sanitation, highway concession and wind and solar generation segments, and ECLAC estimates that Europe accounted for 32% of investment with an identifiable origin in Latin America in 2025.<\/p>\n
In Beni’s assessment, green hydrogen, industrial decarbonization and data centers are among the novelties of 2026, and Brazilian attractiveness rests on low geopolitical volatility, diplomatic neutrality and a clean energy matrix. Larissa Wachholz, a senior researcher at the Brazilian Center for International Relations (CEBRI), argued during the Global Agenda 2026 Forum, held on September 21 in New York, that the country stands to gain more by maintaining openness to all major powers, without preferential alignments, and mentioned Japan and South Korea as relevant partners in Asia. She also cited the fifth auction of Eco Invest Brasil, a Ministry of Finance program, which reserves R$ 1.5 billion from the National Treasury for each fund, with the possibility of banks adding up to double, and targets R$ 50 billion in resource mobilization, the results of which have not yet been disclosed. Among the fronts to explore, she pointed out rare minerals, sustainable chemistry, ethanol, uranium processing and national fertilizer production, an area where greater self-sufficiency would reduce the dependence on imported inputs by agribusiness.<\/p>\n