The world committed $27.9 trillion to gross fixed capital formation in 2023 and $28.6 trillion in 2024 — money sunk into buildings, machinery, infrastructure, software and R&D, on the World Bank's world aggregate. The 57 economies this piece tracks account for 93% of that total. Thirty years ago the world total was $7.6 trillion, and the largest share of it took place in Japan — not China, not America. Fixed investment is the flow that hardens into next decade's capital stock; where it takes place is where capacity, and with it economic leverage, accumulates. This piece opens our series on the world's investment map.
The arc: from Tokyo to Shenzhen
In 1995, $1.80 trillion of fixed investment took place in Japan — more than in the United States ($1.59 trillion) and 23.8% of the world total. China, at $241 billion, ranked sixth — behind Germany, France and Britain as well. Its share of world investment was 3.2%.
China reached rough parity with the US in 2010 ($2.70 trillion vs $2.76 trillion) and passed it in 2011 ($3.34 trillion vs $2.92 trillion). By 2019 the flow had reached $6.15 trillion, a third more than in the US. The expansion peaked in nominal dollars in 2022 at $7.55 trillion — a 31-fold increase from 1995.
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