The 29th PwC Global CEO Survey, unveiled at the World Economic Forum taking place in Davos, Switzerland, this week, gathered responses from 4,454 CEOs across 95 countries, including Mexico, between Sept. 30 and Nov. 10, 2025. 

The United States has actually become more popular among global CEOs as a destination for international investment, despite Trump’s interventions, acc to PwC’s CEO survey. pic.twitter.com/iRicsqoVWT

— Holger Zschaepitz (@Schuldensuehner) January 19, 2026

The CEOs’ input revealed a more somber mood than last year. A noteworthy 30% of respondents were less optimistic about business opportunities in 2026. Just over half of CEOs plan to make international investments in 2026, at 51%. 

They were asked which three countries or territories, excluding their own, would receive the greatest proportion of capital expenditure from their company in the next 12 months.

The United States came out on top for investor preference, with 35% of CEOs placing it in the top three countries that will receive the highest proportion of their investment. 

Here are PwC’s top 10 global investment destinations: 

For 2026 

1. United States: 35%
2. Germany: 13%
3. India: 13%
4. United Kingdom: 13%
5. China: 11%
6. United Arab Emirates: 8%
7. Saudi Arabia: 7%
8. France: 7%
9. Spain: 6%
10. Singapore: 6%

For comparison, here are last year’s rankings:

For 2025

1. United States: 30%
2. United Kingdom: 14%
3. Germany: 12%
4. China: 9%
5. India: 7%
6. France: 7%
7. United Arab Emirates: 6%
8. Australia: 5%
9. Singapore: 5%
10. Mexico: 5%

While the launch of the Plan México national investment strategy in January 2025 was expected to attract more investors to Mexico, the introduction of U.S. tariffs on Mexico and other countries drove up investor uncertainty in 2025. 

In 2026, CEOs are more concerned about the potential impact of tariffs, as 20% of CEOs thought their companies would be highly exposed to the risk of significant losses due to tariffs over the next year. 

The three primary concerns for participants were economic volatility (31%), technological disruption (24%) and geopolitics (23%). Almost one-third said that geopolitical uncertainty is making them less likely to make large new investments.

Many CEOs viewed reinvention as a growth strategy, with 42% of respondents saying their company had begun competing in new sectors over the past five years. Meanwhile, 44% expect to invest outside their current industry, with technology being the most attractive sector.

With reports from El Economista

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Beneath the memes, prompts and productivity hacks lies a serious geopolitical race. And in that space, the U.S.-Mexico relationship may be one of the most important — and underappreciated — dynamics shaping trade and economic policy in the years ahead.

At its core, AI leadership isn’t just about algorithms. It’s about hardware, energy, data, talent, resilience and national security.

Models don’t train themselves in the cloud — they require massive computing power, physical servers, advanced chips, secure supply chains and uninterrupted infrastructure. In that sense, AI looks a lot more like manufacturing than software. And that’s where North America — and especially Mexico — enters the picture. The USMCA’s digital trade framework is becoming a national security tool, not just a trade one — governing data flows, infrastructure and trust in ways that directly shape AI competitiveness (Inter-American Dialogue).

As tensions with China persist and export controls on advanced chips tighten, the United States faces a simple challenge: how to scale AI infrastructure fast, securely and close to home. This is a race where the digital world is moving more quickly than the physical one. AI leadership ultimately rests on semiconductors, and today roughly three-quarters of global chip manufacturing capacity remains concentrated in East Asia, with advanced production highly exposed to geopolitical risk (US-Mexico Foundation). (No need to revisit what happened during COVID).

One concrete example: Mexico is now home to major investments in AI server and “superchip” assembly. Nvidia’s next-generation GB200 servers are being assembled in Jalisco through Foxconn, alongside a growing ecosystem of suppliers relocating from Asia. These facilities aren’t designed for the Mexican market — they’re built to serve North American strategic needs. This is nearshoring not as a buzzword, but as an AI supply-chain strategy. To understand why infrastructure location matters so much, it helps to look at where the physical backbone of the digital economy actually lives.

AI doesn’t live in the cloud — it lives in data centers. And those data centers are highly concentrated geographically, making location, energy and connectivity strategic assets.

Hardware, however, is only half the story. AI also runs on data centers — lots of them. Mexico is rapidly becoming an extension of the North American digital backbone. Multibillion-dollar investments from Microsoft, AWS and others are turning cities like Querétaro into critical nodes for cloud and AI workloads. Enabled by USMCA digital trade rules, these data centers operate within compatible regulatory and privacy frameworks, allowing U.S. firms to expand capacity, improve latency and build redundancy without leaving the region.

This distributed infrastructure matters for resilience. AI systems can’t afford downtime.

In scenarios ranging from cyberattacks to natural disasters or energy stress, having computing capacity spread across the continent strengthens continuity. Mexico and Canada aren’t alternatives to the United States — they are fail-safes. And Mexico’s comparative advantage in this ecosystem isn’t about replicating advanced chip fabs, but about strengthening the assembly, testing, packaging and integration layers that make AI hardware scalable and resilient across North America (U.S.-Mexico Foundation). This isn’t happening by accident. Mexico’s next phase of industrial and digital policy is explicitly aligned with this opportunity.

CFE opens 269-MW combined cycle power plant in Querétaro to boost Bajío grid

Mexico’s industrial and digital infrastructure plans — including data centers, energy, and advanced manufacturing — are increasingly aligned with North America’s AI and nearshoring strategy.

Then there’s talent. AI leadership ultimately depends on people, not just machines. Mexico produces thousands of engineers and computer science graduates every year, many already embedded in North American firms and research ecosystems. Mexican universities graduate over 130,000 engineers annually across degree levels, along with nearly 3,000 master’s graduates in computer science or related fields — the highest number in Latin America. Talent mobility under the USMCA, combined with shared standards and regulatory coordination, accelerates innovation while keeping critical capabilities inside the region.

Seen through this lens, AI becomes a familiar story. Just like manufacturing, trade and energy, the United States doesn’t need to “do it all alone.” It needs a trusted, integrated regional system that lowers risk, increases scale and preserves strategic autonomy. Mexico is not a competitor in the AI race — it is an enabler.

(Just as a footnote, AI related to physical security enforcement, arms and potential war is a huuuge topic, of which I’m not capable of writing about, but keep that in mind as well.)

AI dominance won’t be decided by who writes the best prompt. It will be decided by who controls the full stack: chips, servers, energy, data, talent and trust. The upcoming 2026 USMCA review isn’t just a procedural milestone — it’s a narrow strategic window to lock in North America’s AI advantage before other models define the rules instead (Inter-American Dialogue).

In AI, just like in trade, the future isn’t about decoupling from your closest partners.
It’s about building with them.

Catch up on parts 1-4 of Could Mexico make America great again? here:

• Part 1: An introduction
• Part 2: A primer on China
• Part 3: Zeroing in on the demographics
• Part 4: About that trade deficit

Pedro Casas Alatriste is the Executive Vice President and CEO of the American Chamber of Commerce of Mexico (AmCham). Previously, he has been the Director of Research and Public Policy at the US-Mexico Foundation in Washington, D.C. and the Coordinator of International Affairs at the Business Coordinating Council (CCE). He has also served as a consultant to the Inter-American Development Bank.

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Preliminary data released by the national statistics agency INEGI showed that Mexico’s heavy vehicle industry experienced its worst year since the pandemic in 2020, registering historic drops, in large part due to the 25% tariffs imposed on exports by U.S. President Donald Trump.

The Trump tariffs impacted the industry across the board. 

Mexico exported 113,931 units in 2025, its lowest level since records began to be kept, even lower than the pandemic year 2020’s 115,000. Compared to 2024, total exports fell 28.6%, while production slipped nearly 29% compared to last year.

The United States was the main destination for heavy vehicle exports, accounting for 94.2% of the total; Canada accounted for 3.3%.

The domestic market also shrank as the 14 companies included in the Administrative Registry of the Automotive Industry of Heavy Vehicles reported a sharp decline in sales. 

According to the registry, retail sales totaled 39,833 units, the lowest figure since 2021 and a contraction of 31.67% compared to 2024.

In December, retail sales of heavy vehicles reached only 3,306 units, representing an annual drop of 39.27%, the largest month-to-month decrease for any month since records began in 2018.

The situation was even more dire in the wholesale segment. In December, 3,498 units were sold, a year-on-year drop of 62.68%, the largest recorded for a comparable month. 

For all of 2025, wholesale sales reached 30,673 units, the lowest figure since 2020 and a decrease of 54.70% compared to 2024, the largest annual contraction on record.

As for production, there was also a sharp decline for heavy vehicles.

Total production in 2025 was 138,954 vehicles, representing a 34.84% decrease compared to 2024, the largest annual drop ever. 

In December 2025, 12,547 units were produced, representing a year-on-year drop of 19.80%.

Nearly 98% of total heavy vehicles produced corresponded to cargo vehicles, while the rest were passenger vehicles, demonstrating the high dependence of the sector on the transport of goods.

With reports from Reporte Indigo, La Jornada and Radio Sonora

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The company confirmed Monday that a new partner-run plant in Mexico is now operational, joining recently added facilities in Cambodia and Indonesia.

Labubu in NYC Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade!

Pop Mart International Group Ltd – thumbs up or thumbs down?

I think they did a great job! pic.twitter.com/bPxbkltv9w

— Walks&WallStreet (@WalksWallstreet) November 27, 2025

“This partner-led network increases supply capacity and enables timely and universal access to new products for consumers around the world,” a Pop Mart spokesperson told Bloomberg News.

Pop Mart — which relies on outsourcing to contract manufacturers rather than owning its own factories — said the move is part of its strategy “to expand and strengthen our supply chain,” according to a statement cited by Reuters.

The move into Mexico puts Labubu toys closer to U.S. customers, with shorter shipping times and potential tariff advantages.

This nearshoring setup is expected to bolster Pop Mart’s plans to double its number of U.S. stores this year from the 60 it has going in, supported by more than 100 robotic “roboshop” vending machines.

The expansion follows Labubu’s meteoric rise in 2025, when the sharp-fanged, plush “monster” dolls — originally illustrated by Hong Kong artist Kasing Lung for his “The Monster” books — were named Hypebeast’s Product of the Year for triggering “genuine consumer frenzies around the world.” Hypebeast is a media company that covers streetwear, sneakers, fashion, art and related trends.

Labubu first gained traction when it became a hit with Chinese toy collectors in 2016, then became a global pop-culture phenomenon endorsed by celebrities such as pop superstar Lady Gaga and Japanese-born tennis player Naomi Osaka. Early interest from K-Pop star Lisa (who played “Mook” in season 3 of “The White Lotus”) helped stoke the doll’s initial popularity rise in Asia.

Labubu toys are usually sold in “blind boxes,” which means consumers don’t know which specific figure is inside, creating a lottery-like thrill when they open the box.

The doll’s popularity is tied to this format as collectors buy multiple boxes to “chase” specific designs or rare characters, which in turn fuels hype.

All of this has helped Pop Mart’s profits soar, lifting revenues 250% in the third quarter of 2025 compared to the same July-September period in 2024, with sales in overseas markets rising by up to 370%, according to Bloomberg.

But investors have grown wary that the phenomenon is fading.

Pop Mart shares have fallen about 40% from their August peak amid signs of cooling reseller demand and warnings from analysts that the craze may mirror the 1990s Beanie Babies bubble, when speculative buying led to a sharp collapse in resale values.

With reports from Bloomberg, El Economista and Expansión

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Before getting into politics and economics, it’s worth grounding the conversation in a simple demographic fact. Today, more than 20% of the U.S. population is Hispanic, and over 70% of that group is of Mexican origin. This isn’t an abstract statistic — it’s a structural feature of American society, visible across large parts of the country and primarily concentrated in the Southwest.

With that context in mind, the United States is home to the largest Mexican diaspora in the world, but what we often forget is that Mexico is also home to more Americans than any other country outside the U.S. That alone has important political implications. Three U.S. states — New Mexico, California and Texas — are already majority Latino.

Let me repeat that: the majority of voters in those states, more than any other group (including white Americans), are Latino.

And not coincidentally, Texas and California are the two states with the greatest weight in the Electoral College. Several others are following the same path. In the coming years, states like Arizona, Nevada and Florida — among others — are likely to reach a similar tipping point.

Beyond citizenship and identity, there’s also the labor market reality.

Mexico is the number one country in terms of work visas issued by the United States, followed by China. This matters because the U.S. labor market is structurally constrained. A quick look at the Bureau of Labor Statistics — specifically the ratio of unemployed workers to job openings — tells a very clear story: for the past seven years (excluding a brief moment during the pandemic), the U.S. has consistently had more job openings than unemployed people. This isn’t rocket science. If the United States wants to grow, reindustrialize and compete, it needs people.

Here’s where demographics become impossible to ignore. China, the United States and Mexico are entering very different phases — and that divergence matters. China has already passed its population peak and is experiencing a sharp decline in birth rates, which will steadily shrink its working-age population. The United States is aging too: Baby Boomers and Gen Xers are retiring faster than younger generations are entering the labor force, resulting in a net reduction of roughly 450,000 workers per year (take a moment to let that sink in).

Mexico, by contrast, is at a demographic moment similar to China’s about thirty years ago, with a still-growing and relatively young working-age population. This makes Mexico’s labor force a natural complement to the U.S. economy — not as a substitute, but as a strategic extension of North America’s productive capacity. Quick clarification: I’m not necessarily arguing for increased migration flows. Having everybody working within their territory, but with a sense of collaboration and complementarity, works.

With a population that is, on average, eight years younger than that of the United States, and a workforce that has spent the past three decades training in high-end manufacturing, Mexico has a clear opportunity to enable — not replace, not outsource — the reindustrialization of the region. Add to that the deep social, cultural and political ties between our two countries, and the conclusion becomes hard to ignore.

If we choose to see each other as partners in growth, the path forward is clear.

We need bridges, not walls.

Pedro Casas Alatriste is the Executive Vice President and CEO of the American Chamber of Commerce of Mexico (AmCham). Previously, he has been the Director of Research and Public Policy at the US-Mexico Foundation in Washington, D.C. and the Coordinator of International Affairs at the Business Coordinating Council (CCE). He has also served as a consultant to the Inter-American Development Bank. 

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Canada’s ambassador to Mexico, Cameron Mackay, told Canadian outlet CBC News in a recent interview that the Canadian government is laying the groundwork for a “Team Canada” trade mission to Mexico next February.

🇨🇦🇲🇽 While in Mexico, Minister LeBlanc and a Canadian delegation of business associations reinforced the importance of strengthening Canada-Mexico relations to ensure continued prosperity and collaboration across North America.#EconomicGrowth#TradeDiversification@CanEmbMexico pic.twitter.com/bPOZBB9156

— Canada Trade (@CanadaTrade) December 12, 2025

He said that the mission will be led by Canada-U.S. Trade Minister Dominic LeBlanc, who met with Mexico’s Economy Minister Marcelo Ebrard in Mexico City earlier this month.

Mackay told CBC News that hundreds of Canadian businesses have applied to join the mission.

“In terms of the number of businesses who have applied to join the minister and come and look at export opportunities here, it’ll be the biggest … [trade mission] we’ve ever done,” said the ambassador, who arrived in Mexico in 2024 after serving as Canada’s high commissioner in India.

Such is the interest in participating in the trade mission from the Canadian business community that there may not be enough room for all applicants, Mackay said.

“There’s only so much logistical capacity. We really want to make sure that the businesses themselves are export-ready,” he said.

The Feb. 15-20 trade mission will focus on opportunities in the agriculture, advanced manufacturing, information communications technology and clean energy sectors, as well as creative industries.

The mission will take place just a few months before Mexico, Canada and the United States initiate a formal review of the USMCA, the North American free trade pact that superseded NAFTA in 2020.

During Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney’s visit to Mexico City in September, Mexico and Canada pledged to deepen ties and work to strengthen the free trade pact they share with the United States. Carney also met with President Claudia Sheinbaum at the G7 Summit in Canada in June and at this month’s World Cup draw in Washington, D.C., where the two leaders sat down with U.S. President Donald Trump.

The value of trade between Mexico and Canada is dwarfed by the value of trade between both Mexico and the United States, and Canada and the U.S.

But Mexico-Canada trade has grown significantly in the three decades since NAFTA took effect. Two-way trade was worth almost CAD $56 billion (US $40.75 billion) in 2024, according to the Canadian government, up from less than CAD $5 billion before NAFTA entered into force in 1994.

According to the Mexican government, Mexico’s top export to Canada last year was motor cars, while its top import from Canada was auto parts. The two countries export a range of other products to each other, including agricultural products and various intermediate goods.

Canada is the largest foreign investor in Mexico’s mining sector, while foreign direct investment of Canadian economies across the Mexican economy totaled more than US $3 billion last year. Canada ranked as the fourth biggest foreign investor in Mexico in 2024 behind the United States, Japan and Germany.

Networking, business briefings and site visits 

According to the Canadian government, the trade mission to Mexico will include “networking opportunities with Minister LeBlanc and Mexican business leaders” as well as “on-site business briefings by our Trade Commissioners, senior officials and key local industry experts” and “sector-specific site visits.”

For representatives from small and medium-sized Canadian enterprises, there will also be an opportunity for “pre-arranged business-to-business meetings.”

All participants will go to Mexico City and a second city — either Monterrey or Guadalajara — depending on their sector.

The Canadian government said that the trade mission to Mexico was organized because “Mexico offers a compelling value proposition for Canadian exporters.”

It noted that the USMCA (known as CUSMA in Canada and T-MEC in Mexico) and the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership “provide Canadian businesses with significant advantages, including tariff-free entry for 99% of Canada-Mexico traded goods, streamlined customs procedures [and] enhanced investment protections.”

Considering trade tensions with the United States, “Canada and Mexico will need each other more than we ever have,” Ambassador Mackay told CBC News.

“We want to be working together and trying to solve problems together,” he said.

“With the pressure that’s on the Canadian business community now, I would say there’s never been a better opportunity and more motivation for Canadian businesses to think about expanding and looking at whether Mexico is a good market for them,” the ambassador added.

* MORE ON THE MEXICO-CANADA RELATIONSHIP:

In 2024, Mexico News Daily published a “Canada in Focus” series focusing on different aspects of the Mexico-Canada relationship. Here are links to three of the articles from that series:

• Mexico and Canada: 80 years of diplomatic relations
• Brews without borders: How Beermex links Canada and Mexico through beer
• Going beyond clichés to foster understanding: An interview with Graeme C. Clark, (former) Canadian ambassador to Mexico

With reports from CBC News 

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A spokesperson for China’s Ministry of Commerce on Thursday urged Mexico to “correct its wrong practices of unilateralism and protectionism at an early date,” according to Chinese state news agency Xinhua.

The appeal came after Mexico’s Chamber of Deputies and Senate approved legislation on Wednesday that will increase, or implement for the first time, tariffs on imports of more than 1,400 products from China and other countries with which Mexico doesn’t have trade agreements, including India, South Korea, Thailand and Indonesia.

The tariffs — which cover more than a dozen sectors including auto parts, light vehicles, plastic, toys, textiles, furniture, footwear, clothing, aluminum and glass — range from 5% to 50%. They are scheduled to take effect in January, following promulgation by President Claudia Sheinbaum.

According to Xinhua, the Commerce Ministry spokesperson said that the tariffs approved by the Mexican Congress “will substantially harm the interests of relevant trading partners, including China.”

The spokesperson acknowledged that some downward “adjustments” were made to the tariffs originally proposed by Sheinbaum in a bill she submitted to Congress in September.

Still, China clearly sees Mexico’s protectionist plan as an affront, and an action designed to appease the United States ahead of the 2026 USMCA review.

“We hope that the Mexican side will attach great importance to this matter and act prudently,” the Commerce Ministry spokesperson said.

The spokesperson also “emphasized that China highly values the China-Mexico economic and trade relationship and actively promotes the healthy and stable development of trade and investment cooperation,” according to Xinhua.

In addition, the spokesperson noted that “to safeguard the interests of relevant Chinese industries, the Ministry of Commerce initiated a trade and investment barrier investigation against Mexico at the end of September in accordance with the law, and the investigation is underway.”

Meanwhile, Reuters reported that “Mexico’s decision to raise tariffs as high as 50% will affect [US] $1 billion worth of shipments from major Indian car exporters, including Volkswagen and Hyundai, despite industry lobbying to persuade New Delhi to prevent such a move.”

The news agency said its reporting was based on information from two sources and a letter it reviewed from an industry group, the Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers.

Mexico Approves Up to 50% Tariffs on China, Other Asian Nations

“According to the legislation, Chinese cars face among steepest tariffs at 50%. The country’s massive auto sector currently holds 20% of Mexican market, up dramatically from minimal vehicle imports just 6 years ago” pic.twitter.com/2mecdFd9A8

— Danielle DiMartino Booth (@DiMartinoBooth) December 11, 2025

Volkswagen, Hyundai and various other automakers have plants in India, while U.S. automakers that export vehicles to Mexico from plants in China will also be affected by the tariffs.

With the new and higher tariffs that mainly target goods from Asian countries, the Mexican government is seeking to provide greater protection for Mexican industry — which includes sectors that struggle to compete with cheap imports — and increase domestic output.

It is also aiming to reduce reliance on imports from Asian countries, especially China, a country with which Mexico has a significant trade imbalance.

Ebrard: ‘They’re not political measures, they’re economic and trade measures’

In an interview on Thursday with Radio Fórmula, federal Economy Minister Marcelo Ebrard said it was clear that countries such as China, South Korea, India and Indonesia are not happy that Mexico is imposing tariffs on their exports.

He said that Mexico would hold talks with such countries with a view to “improving trade conditions,” but declared that the Mexican government wouldn’t be lifting the tariffs approved by Congress.

Those tariffs, Ebrard said, “are not political measures, they’re economic and trade measures.”

The economy minister emphasized that Mexico is “trying to protect” Mexican industry from cheap imports.

China and certain other countries are “using very low prices, in some cases below inventory [value],” he said.

Ebrard also noted that Mexico has “unbalanced” trade relationships with “several” of the countries it is imposing higher tariffs on — most notably China, whose exports to Mexico were worth US $62.1 billion in the first half of 2025, more than 13 times higher than its outlay on Mexican goods.

He said that Mexico is mainly targeting “finished goods,” including vehicles, with its new tariffs, rather than intermediate goods, which he noted are needed to “produce, assemble and export.”

Tariffs on vehicles from China and other Asian countries will be as high as 50%, according to the legislation approved by Congress.

Ebrard said that more than 30% of all manufacturing jobs in Mexico depend on the auto sector.

“You’re talking about more than a million, maybe 1.3 million, jobs,” he said, emphasizing the need to protect the Mexican auto sector, which generates a significant portion of Mexico’s export revenue.

Congress approves new tariffs on goods from China and non-FTA countries

Ebrard highlighted that cars coming into Mexico from Asia “don’t provide anything” to the Mexican economy, and indicated that that the flow of such vehicles into the country needs to be combated before its too late.

“The pace of growth of … [these vehicles] is amazing,” he said, referring mainly to the sales of Chinese cars in Mexico in recent years.

Ebrard said that the tariffs approved by Congress only affect 8% of Mexico’s foreign trade and are aimed at protecting “very specific sectors,” including the auto and textile industries, which has lost jobs due to the prevalence of cheap imports.

He said that all countries seek to protect their domestic industries, including those that “are telling us today not to do it.”

“All countries have policies to protect certain sectors,” Ebrard added.

When interviewer Ciro Gómez Leyva put it to him that he was using the arguments of U.S. President Donald Trump to justify the tariffs, the economy minister responded:

“What we’re trying to do is surgical measures. We’re not imposing generalized tariffs because if we wanted to impose tariffs on all of Mexico’s foreign trade like the United States is doing with other countries, it would be very complicated for our economy. … The argument of President Trump is different, the argument of President Trump is that everything has to be made in the United States.”

Ebrard acknowledged that “a lot of modifications” were made to the original tariffs bill after consultation with Mexican industry. Tariffs for many goods were lowered from the proposal Sheinbaum sent to Congress in September.

The legislation approved is “quite reasonable” and “I’m not thinking it will change in the short term,” Ebrard said.

With reports from Xinhua, Radio Fórmula and El Financiero  

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Stellantis aims to position higher-volume, higher-value-added products in its Mexican production network. The Saltillo plant in the border state of Coahuila will produce the Ram 1500, a full-size pickup truck that will compete directly with Chevrolet’s Silverado, which is manufactured in Silao, Guanajuato.

In its Toluca facility in Mexico state, Stellantis will assemble its Cherokee hybrid and Recon EV, introducing a more diverse and technologically advanced production cycle to the plant. It will also continue to produce its Compass and Wagoneer S models. 

“This is only the beginning of what will happen in Mexico,” said Daniel González, the Stellantis Mexico CEO. “What matters is what comes next.” 

While Stellantis is reconfirming its commitment to the Mexican market, some other automakers have moved operations, citing uncertainty in the industry owing to the introduction of U.S. tariffs across several industries by the Trump administration in the United States. 

General Motors has moved part of its production to the United States, while Nissan plans to close two Mexican plants, in Cuernavaca and Aguascalientes. Tesla has paused the development of a gigafactory in Mexico. 

 The launch of the new Stellantis models has supported the creation of 5,000 jobs in Mexico, according to González. 

“We have eight plants in the country, two main complexes, 13,000 people in the plants and 17,000 in total,” said González. “This shows a company that is betting on Mexico and believes in Mexico.” 

Stellantis will also introduce the Leapmotor brand to the Mexican market next year, with the launch of at least 13 modelss.

The EV startup Leapmotor was founded in China in 2015. In 2024, the firm signed an agreement with Stellantis for the marketing and after-sales service of its cars outside of China, aimed at accelerating its international expansion. 

The expansion of Stellantis in Mexico comes after the firm announced a partial suspension of its Mexico operations in April due to concerns over the potential introduction of auto tariffs by the United States. Since then, however, greater market stability has helped solidify the firm’s position in Mexico. 

 With reports from Expansión and Mexico Business News

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President Claudia Sheinbaum posted an Economy Ministry infographic to social media that showed that Mexico received $40.906 billion in FDI between January and September, up from $35.737 billion in the same period of last year.

Buenas noticias: México rompe récord de inversión extranjera directa con 40 mil 906 millones de dólares, el monto más alto de un tercer trimestre desde que existe registro, de acuerdo con la Secretaría de Economía. Se reafirma la voluntad de inversión en nuestro país; vamos a… pic.twitter.com/ylxCts85b0

— Claudia Sheinbaum Pardo (@Claudiashein) November 19, 2025

Sheinbaum wrote that the FDI amount in the first nine months of the year was the highest on record.

“The willingness to invest in our country is reaffirmed. We’re going to end 2025 very well,” she wrote.

Sheinbaum’s post to social media came after Economy Minister Marcelo Ebrard spoke about FDI at the president’s Wednesday morning press conference and presented less precise data.

After referring to what he called a 15% annual increase to almost $41 billion in FDI between January and September, Ebrard said that “all expectations” were that the growth in foreign investment in Mexico wasn’t going to be so large.

He said that the FDI growth rate is very important because “it means that investors from around the world are deciding to invest in Mexico in greater proportions than we had expected.”

“That’s why it’s very good news,” Ebrard said.

He said that the “new investment” component of FDI had increased the most in the first nine months of the year. Ebrard said that new FDI increased from $2 billion in the first nine months of 2024 to $6.5 billion in the same period of this year, an increase of over 200%.

Thus new investment contributed to around 16% of total FDI in Mexico in the first nine months of the year, with the remainder of the money coming from reinvestment of profits by foreign companies with an existing presence in Mexico, as well as loans and payments between companies of the same corporate group.

Ebrard also highlighted that FDI in Mexico increased almost 70% in the first nine months of 2025 compared to the same period of 2018, when Enrique Peña Nieto was president of Mexico.

FDI “is accelerating,” he said. “This signifies confidence in the government of President Sheinbaum. … It’s very good news for our country. Congratulations, president.”

Ebrard didn’t provide a breakdown of the countries from which FDI came in the first nine months of the year, but data he displayed showed that 37% of the money went to Mexico’s manufacturing sector, 25% went to financial services and 5% was invested in construction projects.

The FDI data for the first nine months of the year confirms that foreign investment in Mexico has already exceeded the total for the entirety of 2024. Mexico received just under $37 billion in FDI last year, an increase of just over 2% compared to 2023.

The federal government is aiming to increase FDI as part of its Plan México economic initiative, whose goals include reducing reliance on imports, especially from China and other Asian countries, and making Mexico the 10th largest economy in the world by 2030.

Mexico has benefited from the nearshoring trend, as companies seek to relocate production closer to the United States and take advantage of the USMCA trade pact, which still allows most goods to be traded tariff-free within North America, even though U.S. President Donald Trump has imposed various duties on imports from Mexico and Canada.

Mexico is still waiting for many foreign companies to act on the investment announcements they have made in recent months and years, although there is no guarantee that all of them will follow through. Among the companies whose investment announcements for Mexico appear unlikely to happen are electric vehicle manufacturers Tesla and BYD, although the latter firm is said to be reconsidering its decision to cancel a proposed plant.

Mexico News Daily 

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The project is in line with the national Kutsari project, a government initiative aiming to coordinate the efforts of the public and private sector, along with academia, to strengthen Mexican semiconductor design and production.

“Jalisco is home to 70% of the national semiconductor industry, which is why today we celebrate partnering with Cinvestav [the Center for Research and Advanced Studies of the National Polytechnic Institute], one of the country’s most renowned scientific institutions, to establish the Jalisco State Semiconductor Park, which will also host the federal Kutsari project,” the state government wrote on Instagram on Thursday.

The state government and Cinvestav signed an agreement to develop the park in Mexico’s Bajío region over two phases. 

The first phase includes an 18-million-peso (US $979,000) investment to adapt the second floor at the existing Cinvestav facilities in Zapopan, Jalisco, by March 2026. 

The second phase is the 50-million-peso (US $2.7 million) development of a permanent 4,600-square-meter design park within the same complex. 

“The national Cinvestav will be in charge of running the Kutsari project… through the Cinvestav Guadalajara campus,” Jalisco state Economic Development Minister Cindy Blanco Ochoa said. “What we, as the State Semiconductor Design Park… are going to do is to boost the industry because this curriculum and these courses are created by industry, taught by academia and facilitated by the government.” 

In February, President Claudia Sheinbaum presented the new semiconductor initiative that plans to make Mexico’s industry a key player in the global chips industry.

Sheinbaum’s plan to make Mexico a semiconductor superpower: Thursday’s mañanera recapped

Mexico currently imports more than US $20 billion worth of integrated circuits annually, and the national Kutsari project aims to reduce the dependency on semiconductor imports while strengthening Mexico’s participation in the global chips supply chain.

By 2030, the Jalisco park is expected to support the specialization of 3,000 semiconductor design engineers, the creation of 10 Jalisco-based startups dedicated to semiconductor design, and to triple foreign direct investment.

Jalisco already plays a major role in the design stage for semiconductors and is home to around eight companies dedicated to semiconductor manufacturing. 

The government hopes the park will strengthen Mexico’s reputation as a global semiconductor power through the focus on four strategic pillars: creating specialized talent, fostering new businesses, attracting more private investment and developing a specialized curriculum in design.

With reports from El Economista and El Informador

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