Investor Watch: May 4, 2026

There’s no better way to launch National Economic Development Week than Alexis Elmore’s weekly look at three projects making headway. Australia’s Syenta makes its first U.S. landing in Tempe. U. S. Steel brings another $1.9 billion to its Big River Steel site. IBM declares its future is now at Illinois Quantum and Microelectronics Park.

COVER STORY

Anyone engaged in regional investment attraction knows an essential truth: Things seem to go much better when your area’s economy and policies align with your country’s. Judging by the results of this year’s Global Best to Invest index, things could not be more united anywhere in the world than in the United Kingdom.

BONUS ANALYSIS

The index used to determine this year’s Global Best to Invest country and metro rankings is composed of sets and subsets of data from 12 different sources. Here are more granular insights and data from two of them.

STATE COMPETITIVENESS

For the second straight year, Texas takes the crown for registering the highest scores across the 10 categories of data in the Prosperity Cup index.

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Dr. Steve Borst, vice president of Alltech Crop Science (ACS), spoke in October 2025 at the groundbreaking for the company’s crop science manufacturing facility.
Photo courtesy of Alltech

The recently released 2026 Alltech Agri-Food Outlook reveals results from the Kentucky-based animal nutrition and crop science company’s global feed survey encompassing responses from more than 38,000 feed mills in more than 140 countries. Among other facts, the report finds that global feed production reached 1.44 billion metric tons in 2025, for a 2.9% year-on-year increase.

Site Selection last checked in on Alltech’s own growth in the 2026 Kentucky Economic Development Guide’s “Where Kentucky’s Roots Meet Innovation.” Supported by a supported by a $2.34 million grant from the $500 million USDA Fertilizer Production Expansion Program launched in 2022, the company broke ground last fall on a $4.6 million crop science solutions manufacturing facility. Our first look through the Alltech lens came in 2018 in “Where the Domesticated Things Are: Why Asia is Central to Alltech’s Strategy and the Business of Feeding the World.”

A food & beverage industry report is among the stories coming to Site Selection’s July 2026 issue. Place your ad message today.

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China-based medical device company Edan Instruments last October opened a new manufacturing hub in San Diego, California, one of 20 outward Chinese FDI facility projects in the U.S. tracked by Site Selection’s Conway Projects Database last year.
Photo courtesy of Edan

Rhodium Group, known among other focus areas for its China Cross-Border Monitor, last week reported that as of Q1 2026, while outward Chinese FDI continues to grow in sub-Saharan Africa and ASEAN member countries, more than half of Chinese clean-tech investment in the U.S. announced since 2022 has been canceled, paused or delayed. “A bilateral trade deal could help revive Chinese FDI to some extent,” the organization stated. “However, it is highly unlikely that it would catalyze a new investment boom in the U.S. Bilateral negotiations could provide some guardrails, but it would not address the core reasons for the slowdown, which are deeply embedded in U.S.-China strategic competition and distrust.”

Photo of Lucas Museum of Narrative Art campus by Patrick Prices courtesy of Lucas Museum

As fans of the “Star Wars” universe celebrate today’s date with “May the 4th be with you,” we thought it a good time to look in on the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art, where the 300,000-sq.-ft. building appears ready to lift off from its 11-acre campus in Exposition Park in Los Angeles, an area originally designated for fairs and exhibitions in 1872. “From Ma Yansong’s architectural vision to Mia Lehrer’s dynamic gardens, the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art emerges from Exposition Park as a place where imagination and everyday life meet,” the museum states.

Exposition Park, across the street from the University of Southern California (USC), is also home to the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County, the California African American Museum, the California Science Center, LA Memorial Coliseum, BMO Stadium and the Exposition Park Rose Garden. The five-story Lucas Museum, home to 100,000 sq. ft. of galleries and two cinematic theaters among other amenities, is slated to hold its grand opening on September 22, 2026.