At the SelectUSA Investment Summit, states try to woo foreign investors

The SelectUSA Investment Summit wrapped up this week. It’s a trade show of sorts where states strut their stuff and try to attract foreign investors. And it comes at a tricky time, as President Donald Trump pressures foreign countries to invest in the U.S., prodding them along by announcing or threatening new tariffs.

The first thing you saw when walking into the vast exhibition hall at this year’s SelectUSA Investment Summit was giant colorful booths from states that paid top dollar for extra space at the front.

Idaho’s smaller booth is about halfway back; there, you could find Jan Rogers, the head of the Southern Idaho Economic Development Organization. Rogers has been to almost every Investment Summit since they started back during the Obama administration.

“I have absolutely seen it all,” she said.

Rogers said that tariffs aren’t nixing any of the deals she’s lined up with foreign investors — so far. That’s the case even for a French company paying high tariffs to import packaging machines into Idaho.

“I don’t know what the pain point has to be, but they continue to move forward no matter what,” she said.

The U.S. is still seen as a stable environment, Rogers said — the place to be. Even countries that are part of the Trump administration’s travel ban are represented here.

Kassim Bagayoko is part of a large delegation from Mali. Their ambassador had to wrangle special visas for them. Bagayoko would like to set up a business importing rare earths from Mali into the U.S. But with the travel ban, “you can incorporate. You can employ people. But you can’t come to see your customers or at least have meetings with your staff.”

Bagayoko is hoping the visa policy will change so he can open a U.S. office. This Investment Summit is all about that type of greenfield investment — foreign companies opening factories or branches here. But most foreign investment in the U.S. comes from mergers and acquisitions, and many of those are in limbo because of the uncertainty of tariffs and the war in the Middle East.

That’s what Teruko Wada told me as she rushed to a meeting just outside the noisy hall. She’s head of Keidanren USA, the U.S. wing of the Japan Business Federation. She speaks regularly with Japanese executives.

“They’re carefully watching when to invest, and where to invest,” Wada said.

Jonathan Samford heads up the Global Business Alliance, a trade association for foreign investors. He said that mergers and acquisitions make up around 60% of foreign investment in developed economies like the U.S.

He’s also seeing hesitation: “Many foreign executives ask themselves ‘What is happening in Washington today?’ on a near daily basis.”

In fact, the Global Business Alliance crunched some preliminary data from the Commerce Department and found that total foreign direct investment in the U.S. last year was $288 billion — down 1% from 2024.