{"id":15099,"date":"2025-11-12T09:56:21","date_gmt":"2025-11-12T07:56:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/jhb-webdevelopers\/channelafrica\/news\/us-overtakes-china-as-the-biggest-foreign-direct-investor-in-africa\/"},"modified":"2026-02-27T16:27:26","modified_gmt":"2026-02-27T14:27:26","slug":"us-overtakes-china-as-the-biggest-foreign-direct-investor-in-africa","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/news\/us-overtakes-china-as-the-biggest-foreign-direct-investor-in-africa\/","title":{"rendered":"US overtakes China as the biggest foreign direct investor in Africa"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<p class=\"x_MsoNormal\"><span style=\"background-color: var(--global--color-background); color: var(--global--color-primary); font-family: var(--global--font-secondary); font-size: var(--global--font-size-base);\">The United States (US) has overtaken China as the biggest foreign direct investor in Africa, according to the China Africa Research Initiative of Johns Hopkins University, which accessed official data.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p class=\"x_MsoNormal\">It marks the first time since 2012 that the US has regained the lead, as it looks to increase its access to critical minerals and metals.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p class=\"x_MsoNormal\">China dominates the global supply of rare earths, which are used in everything from our smartphones to electric vehicles to fighter jets.<\/p>\n<p>It has significant reserves at home, and access to supplies from overseas thanks to major investment in foreign mining operations particularly in Africa, which is rich in critical minerals and metals.<\/p>\n<p>Beijing has also built up a dominant position when it comes to processing global supplies.<\/p>\n<p>The US has been working overtime to try and create an alternative supply chain so they&#8217;re no longer dependent on China, inking rare earth deals in recent months with nations including Saudi Arabia, Australia and Malaysia.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p class=\"x_MsoNormal\"><span style=\"background-color: var(--global--color-background); color: var(--global--color-primary); font-family: var(--global--font-secondary); font-size: var(--global--font-size-base);\">African reserves are also seen as critical to that mission.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p class=\"x_MsoNormal\">According to the latest annual figures, the US invested $7.8 billion across Africa in 2023, compared with $4 billion by China.<\/p>\n<p>That reportedly includes American investment in mines in Rwanda.<\/p>\n<p>Beijing has long cultivated ties with African governments by developing mines and building infrastructure through state-owned construction companies, often funded by loans.<\/p>\n<p>The Brookings Institute says Beijing sees Africa as a critical source of raw materials to fuel its new productivity industries.<\/p>\n<p>Some experts say that US President Donald Trump&#8217;s tariffs on African nations dampened enthusiasm for the US at a time when some countries are complaining that Chinese investment is not benefiting local populations enough.<\/p>\n<p>Analysts say both the US and China could see increasing competition in Africa from the likes of Brazil, India and Japan.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p class=\"x_MsoNormal\"><span style=\"background-color: var(--global--color-background); color: var(--global--color-primary); font-family: var(--global--font-secondary); font-size: var(--global--font-size-base);\">&#8211;SABC&#8211;<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":14370,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false},"news-type":[78,44],"class_list":["post-15099","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","news-type-featured","news-type-finance","entry"],"acf":{"short_description":"","published_date":null,"news_description":"United States has overtaken China as the biggest foreign direct investor","form_embed":"","author":"","image_caption":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/15099","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/news"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/15099\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19483,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/15099\/revisions\/19483"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14370"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15099"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"news-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-type?post=15099"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}