Inward FDI across the European Union still leans heavily on American capital, according to new Eurostat figures published on 11 November 2026. Among the 14 member states that reported where their foreign direct investment ultimately comes from, the United States accounted for 15.4 percent of the total value in 2025.

Germany followed with 11.5 percent, France with 9.4 percent and the United Kingdom with 9.3 percent. Switzerland completed the top five at 5.8 percent. The ranking places two non-EU economies, the US and the UK, among the four largest sources of inward FDI in the reporting countries.

The method matters a great deal. Standard statistics record the immediate investor, often a holding company in Luxembourg, the Netherlands or Cyprus. Eurostat instead looks through those conduits to the ultimate investing economy, and so shows who actually controls the factories, offices and networks behind the inward FDI figures.

The picture differs sharply from one country to the next. In nine of the 14 reporting countries, most inward FDI came from other EU member states. Czechia showed the strongest intra-EU reliance at 75.1 percent, followed by Romania at 73.3 percent and Estonia at 64.8 percent.

Those numbers reflect how the single market works in practice. German car and machinery groups have built supply chains across central Europe, while Nordic and western European banks and retailers dominate in the Baltics. For these economies, foreign capital is largely a story of integration with their EU neighbours.

Five countries told a different story. Cyprus recorded the highest non-EU share at 79.4 percent, a legacy of its role as a base for international holding structures and shipping firms. Spain, Sweden, Greece and Denmark each drew between 51.0 and 55.1 percent of their inward FDI from outside the Union.

Coverage remains a clear limitation. Reporting by ultimate investor is voluntary, so only 14 of the 27 member states supplied the breakdown, and several large hosts of foreign capital are missing. The 15.4 percent US share therefore describes the reporting group, not the Union as a whole.

Even so, the data arrive at a sensitive moment for EU economic policy. The Commission’s latest annual report on investment screening counted 667 notifications of foreign deals in 2025. Knowing the final owner behind inward FDI is central to that screening work, especially in defence, energy and digital infrastructure.

The figures also feed the debate on outward investment. A separate Eurostat release on 5 November reported a 2 percent fall in 2025 in EU investment stocks held outside the Union. Taken together, the two releases show a bloc that still attracts foreign capital but invests more cautiously abroad.

For policymakers, the message is twofold. The single market remains the main engine of investment for most of central and eastern Europe, yet the United States is still the largest single outside owner of productive assets. Any escalation in transatlantic trade tensions would therefore reach deep into European balance sheets.

The new inward FDI breakdown, drawn from the bop_fdi6_pos dataset, gives national statistical offices and the Commission a sharper tool for tracking foreign control. Wider reporting by the remaining 13 member states would turn this useful snapshot into a full EU map of who owns what.