The energy transition and digitisation of the global economy continued to shape the top-10 recipient sectors for foreign direct investment (FDI) in the first half of 2023, according to preliminary figures from greenfield investment fDi Markets.

Between January and June 2023, foreign investors announced investment projects worth almost $558bn worldwide. This marked the third-largest capital expenditure recorded for a six-month period since 2008, after roughly $600bn of FDI pledges in both the first and second half of 2022.

The FDI landscape was largely driven by the continuation of large capital intensive projects, most notably in renewables and batteries, but also in metals, semiconductors and data centres. The latest half-year 2023 figures from fDi Markets show that 72 mega projects worth at least $1bn have been announced, down by 14% on the first half of 2022, but still the second-highest number on record.

Renewables maintained its lead as the top recipient sector with greenfield FDI worth $133bn. More than half ($70.4bn) of this was pledged to hydrogen and other emerging cleantech technology projects, despite there still being no commercial-scale green hydrogen production facility operating globally. Solar power projects received $35.5bn of greenfield FDI, marking the highest six-month period on record, while wind projects received $17bn.

On the flipside, there are signs that elevated fossil fuel investment in 2022, partially caused by the energy crisis after Russia’s war in Ukraine, is weakening. Global cross-border investment into coal, oil and gas stood at $39bn in the first half of 2023, down by 37% from the same period of last year, fDi Markets figures show.

Semiconductors received the second-most greenfield FDI of any sub-sector, with $40.6bn worth of projects tracked in the first half of 2023. This follows roughly $175bn worth of FDI microchip projects tracked between 2021 and 2022, as governments have offered huge incentives to build out their domestic innovation and production capacity in this critically important industry.

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Data centres received $29bn worth of FDI pledges in the first half of the year, due to several major cloud computing regions. This was the strongest six-months for data centres since the second half of 2021, and helped the broadly defined communications sector receive FDI worth more than $43.8bn.

The highly coveted battery sector posted another strong first half-year period, making up the majority of investment pledged into all electronic components. Greenfield FDI battery projects worth more than $29bn were announced, down 20.8% year-on-year, but the second highest six-month period ever recorded on fDi Markets. Ambitious plans to build battery plants will be difficult to deliver, particularly for battery start-ups as show by the fates of companies like Italvolt and Britishvolt.

By comparison, the automotive OEM sector saw $19.5bn of total investment in the first half of 2023. This reflects the fact that EV batteries make up the majority of the cost and value-add of EVs.

The resources needed for the energy transition saw significant investment activity too. About $45bn worth of FDI was pledged to metals projects — about a quarter of which went to steel products. Other metal projects worth $12.8bn were announced, which included several mega projects for the mining, refining and production of battery materials like cobalt and nickel.

Other traditionally large industries also made it into the top 10 FDI sectors during the first half of 2023. This included real estate ($29.8bn), transportation and warehousing ($24.7bn) and tech ($21.5bn), according to fDi Markets figures.