Investor Watch: November 6, 2025

Provision, support and facilities for employee child care have risen in priority for employers over the past several years. To what extent has provision for family caregivers followed suit? That’s just one of the questions families, communities and company leaders might ask after examining “Caregiving in the US 2025: Caring Across States,” a 248-page report published in October by AARP and the National Alliance for Caregiving.

FDI IN AMERICA

Foreign investment in the States continues to roll in as trade temperatures fluctuate.

OHIO RIVER CORRIDOR

Driven by huge investments from such companies as Ford Motor Co. and GE Appliances and a healthy contribution of projects from Indiana communities across the river, Greater Louisville this year earns the No. 1 ranking in Site Selection’s analysis of the Ohio River Corridor. (Site Selection joins in mourning those who lost their lives in this week’s aircraft crash near UPS WorldPort in Louisville, which as of this morning has resumed operations.)

INVESTMENT PROFILE: SAN BERNARDINO COUNTY, CALIFORNIA

When MP Materials announced on July 10 that it had secured a multi-billion-dollar deal with the U.S. Department of Defense to supply the U.S. Armed Forces with rare earth materials, the move signaled the latest transformative chapter in the ever-expanding critical mining sector of San Bernardino County in Southern California.

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Photo-rendering courtesy of Archer Aviation

This week Santa Clara, California-based Archer Aviation announced that the Japan Airlines-led consortium, which features Archer’s Midnight Aircraft, was selected by the Tokyo Metropolitan Government to participate in phase one of Tokyo’s “eVTOL Implementation Project.” Phase one will “assess the market and build the operating ecosystem, leading up to planned demonstration flights over Tokyo Bay and river routes, which represents critical steps towards ramping commercial operations in the coming years,” the company stated. “The selection recognizes the strength of the existing strategic partnership Archer has developed with Japan Airlines and Sumitomo Corporation through their joint venture eVTOL operating company, Soracle.

Archer and Soracle previously announced a strategic alliance in November 2024 to jointly launch air taxi operations in Japan, with the goal of offering services in cities where existing ground transportation is constrained by traffic or geographic barriers.

Adam Goldstein, Archer’s Founder and CEO, said the selection of the consortium gave the allied companies “a critical opportunity to help make the promise of urban mobility an everyday reality in Tokyo, the world’s largest city.” Archer in October announced an exclusive deal with Korean Air that includes the potential purchase of up to 100 Midnight aircraft.

Retired Senior Editor Gary Daughters talked to Archer leaders in early 2024 about how they chose to come in for a landing in Georgia to build the Midnight aircraft.

The Marlboro Development Team (MDT) has completed construction on a state-of-the-art, 100,000-square-foot speculative industrial building in Ascott Valley Industrial Park, Conway, South Carolina — adjacent to the bustling Hwy 22/US 701 corridor near Myrtle Beach. Designed to meet modern manufacturing and logistics demands, the tiltwall concrete facility features 32′6″ clear height, 50′ × 54′ column spacing with an additional 60′ × 54′ speedbay, and 200-foot truck courts. It comes equipped with 13 dock doors, one drive-in bay, 1600-amp 3-phase power, LED lighting and expansive room for future growth — expandable up to 150,000 square feet on its 9.9-acre site. Situated in the fully served 120-acre park (including rail access, robust utilities and proximity to Myrtle Beach Intl Airport and Inland Port Dillon), this project positions Conway as a compelling hub for industrial investment.

Backed by support from the Myrtle Beach Regional Economic Development Corporation (MBREDC), this project reflects MDT’s strategic approach to delivering high-quality, market-ready assets in growth-oriented regions, offering investors a prime opportunity in one of the Southeast’s most dynamic industrial corridors.

ROADMAP TO THE FUTURE

The Great Lakes region’s challenges are many, but they can be overcome, say four experts.

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According to PitchBook, growing startups have always competed just as hard as large tech companies have for the limited number of capped H-1B visas for foreign talent. Now the $100,000 H-1B application fee (with no assurance of approval and therefore the potential loss of $100,000) ratchets up the pressure. A new private company H-1B tracker from PitchBook examines historical data involving VC funding and H-1B approvals and which startups are using H-1Bs the most.

Want to dig deeper on your own? One of the primary sources of PitchBook data is U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services’ H-1B Employer Data Hub. The above map shows top H-1B states and top H-1B companies as of the end of September.

The U.S. Black Chambers, Inc. (USBC), in October announced the acquisition of the historic, 7.88-acre Black Entertainment Television (BET) Campus in Washington, D.C. (above), where the organization plans to invest more than $38 million to transform the home of “Robert L. Johnson’s groundbreaking media empire” into the three-building USBC Innovation Campus — The Epicenter of Business and Commerce (rendering below). In addition to incubator and accelerator space, media production capabilities, dining facilities, training and development space and other facets, office leasing options are available for small businesses and Fortune 500 companies.

Ron Busby Sr., president and CEO of the U.S. Black Chambers, Inc., called the new campus “not just a building, but a living symbol of what happens when we claim our space, own our future and build institutions that outlast us.”

Images courtesy of USBC