Airbus is the aerospace and defense company most prolific at making international expansions, followed by The Boeing and Thales. GlobalData’s aerospace and defense foreign direct investment (FDI) company report highlights the current foreign investments made by leading aerospace and defense investors. Buy the report here.

Airbus has been the most active aerospace and defense greenfield investor between Q1 2019 and Q4 2023, according to GlobalData’s FDI Projects Database. The Parent_clean company has been actively investing through several of its subsidiaries/company divisions.

Greenfield foreign direct investment is when a company invests abroad to establish a new physical presence or expand an existing operation. Greenfield investments create jobs and/or involve a capital investment into the foreign location. Other forms of FDI, such as mergers and acquisitions, are not included as part of this definition.

The majority of Airbus investments were in the civil fixed-wing subsector. In fact, 41% of its total foreign investments were in this subsector. It also created projects across a further 11 subsectors.

By business function, most (43.4%) of Airbus projects were related to manufacturing. Sales, administration & marketing and R&D were the next most popular operations undertaken by Airbus.

The company has been active across eight world regions, mainly focused on Western Europe which received 54.2% of the company’s greenfield investments between Q1 2019 and Q4 2023. Its top three destination countries (by number of greenfield FDI projects) were Germany, the US and France. Combined these three countries account for 50% of its total number of aerospace and defense investments.

How well do you really know your competitors?

Access the most comprehensive Company Profiles on the market, powered by GlobalData. Save hours of research. Gain competitive edge.

Company Profile – free sample

Thank you!

Your download email will arrive shortly

Not ready to buy yet? Download a free sample

We are confident about the unique quality of our Company Profiles. However, we want you to make the most beneficial decision for your business, so we offer a free sample that you can download by submitting the below form

By GlobalData
Visit our Privacy Policy for more information about our services, how we may use, process and share your personal data, including information of your rights in respect of your personal data and how you can unsubscribe from future marketing communications. Our services are intended for corporate subscribers and you warrant that the email address submitted is your corporate email address.

Airbus created more FDI projects in 2022 compared to any other year between Q1 2019 and Q4 2023.

Other leading FDI project generators in the aerospace and defense industry include The Boeing, Thales, RTX and Safran.

The US is the leading source market for outbound aerospace and defense greenfield FDI projects. The country accounts for 23.5% of total outbound aerospace and defense investment projects. There have been 80 unique parent companies from the US that have announced aerospace and defense FDI projects between between Q1 2019 and Q4 2023.

To further understand the top aerospace and defense FDI companies, access GlobalData’s Top Aerospace and Defense Foreign Direct Investment Companies report.