The American Cities Foreign Manufacturers Are Choosing in 2026
- Philip Lamb
- 2 days ago
- 6 min read
"An army marches on its stomach." Napoleon said it about logistics. The foreign manufacturers flooding into the United States right now are proving it about location strategy. Where you plant the flag determines everything that follows — the talent you can recruit, the supply chain you can build, and whether the investment delivers what the board projected.
Foreign direct investment in US manufacturing reached $67.7 billion in new expenditures in 2024 alone, accounting for nearly 45 percent of all new foreign investment in the country that year. The total foreign-owned position in US manufacturing now stands at $2.4 trillion. Japan leads with $819 billion invested, Germany with $677 billion, and Europe as a region supplied 64 percent of all new investment in 2024.
The plants being built are not going where most people assume. They are not going to New York, Chicago, or Los Angeles. They are going to Bryan County, Georgia. Randolph County, North Carolina. Taylor, Texas. De Soto, Kansas. Blythewood, South Carolina. The real story of American manufacturing in 2026 is being written in secondary and tertiary markets that most foreign executives have never visited.
Here is where the investment is landing and what it means for the companies making location decisions right now.
Phoenix, Arizona — The Semiconductor Capital
TSMC's Arizona commitment is now $165 billion, the largest single foreign direct investment in American history. The Taiwan-based chipmaker is building three fabrication plants, two advanced packaging facilities, and a major research and development center on a campus that has grown to more than 2,000 acres outside Phoenix. Fab 21 Phase 1 is already operational, producing chips for Apple and NVIDIA's Blackwell AI processors. Phase 2 targets 3nm production in 2027.
Why Phoenix won: CHIPS Act funding, a state-run semiconductor workforce pipeline through Maricopa Community Colleges, utility cooperation, and available land at a scale that most US metros cannot offer.
Savannah, Georgia — The Automotive Anchor
Hyundai Motor Group Metaplant America held its grand opening in March 2025, completing the largest economic development project in Georgia history. The original $7.59 billion investment has since grown significantly. A second phase announced in September 2025 added $2.7 billion more and 3,000 additional jobs, pushing total investment toward $10.3 billion with a target of 500,000 vehicles annually by 2028. Hyundai's presence has already generated nearly 6,900 supplier jobs and $2.5 billion in supplier investment across the state.
The Savannah plant is the anchor of something much larger. In March 2026, Hyundai President and CEO José Muñoz announced a $26 billion total US investment through 2030, including 36 all-new or significantly enhanced vehicle launches across North America spanning passenger cars, SUVs, trucks, and commercial vehicles. Hyundai is targeting more than 80 percent of vehicles sold in the US to be assembled domestically by 2030, with US supply chain content rising from 60 percent to 80 percent. The investment includes a new steel mill in Louisiana and a robotics innovation hub. No foreign automaker has made a more comprehensive commitment to American manufacturing.
The Port of Savannah, the busiest single-terminal container port on the East Coast, is the infrastructure anchor that made Bryan County the choice over competing sites across multiple states.
Spartanburg and Blythewood, South Carolina — BMW and Volkswagen
BMW has invested nearly $12 billion in Spartanburg since 1992, making it the largest BMW plant in the world by volume. In 2025 and 2026, BMW is investing $1.7 billion to convert Spartanburg to full EV production, with the all-electric iX5 beginning production in late 2026. A companion battery plant is under construction in Woodruff, SC.
Forty miles south in Blythewood, Scout Motors, a Volkswagen subsidiary, broke ground on a $2 billion EV assembly plant targeting 200,000 units per year and 4,000 jobs, with production starting by end of 2026.
South Carolina's appeal is 30 years of accumulated automotive supply chain, Clemson University's automotive engineering pipeline, right-to-work status, and state readiness programs that move faster than most competing states.
Liberty, North Carolina — Toyota's Largest Battery Plant
Toyota Battery Manufacturing North Carolina opened in November 2025 after a $13.9 billion investment. The facility spans 7 million square feet, employs more than 1,200 workers at opening with plans to reach 5,100, and represents Toyota's first battery plant outside Japan. The company has committed an additional $10 billion over five years in North Carolina for future mobility manufacturing.
Randolph County, where Liberty sits, is rural. That is the point. Foreign manufacturers in 2026 are choosing sites where they can build at scale without the land costs, permitting complexity, and labor competition of established industrial metros.
Taylor, Texas — Samsung's $17 Billion Bet
Samsung's semiconductor fabrication plant in Taylor, Texas is the largest single foreign investment in Texas history. Construction is 91.8 percent complete as of early 2025, with full operations targeted by end of 2026 and approximately 1,500 permanent employees at opening, growing toward 20,000 total direct and indirect jobs over time. In September 2025, Samsung received an additional $250 million grant from the Texas Semiconductor Innovation Fund.
Taylor is 35 miles northeast of Austin. The investment is a direct play on Austin's technology ecosystem combined with rural land availability and Texas-scale incentives.
De Soto, Kansas — Panasonic's Battery Operation
Panasonic Energy opened its $4 billion EV battery plant in De Soto, Kansas in July 2025, one of the largest automotive battery facilities in North America. The 300-acre facility began mass production of 2170 battery cells at opening with 1,100 employees and a target of 4,000 to 4,500 workers at full capacity. De Soto sits at the center of the US, positioned for logistics efficiency to serve Tesla and other EV manufacturers across the Midwest.
Marysville, Ohio — Honda's EV Transformation
Honda has invested more than $13 billion in Ohio since 1982. The latest chapter is a $4.2 billion commitment with LG Energy Solution to build a new EV battery plant and retool existing Ohio facilities for electric vehicle production, with EV production underway in 2025. Honda's Ohio footprint employs more than 12,000 people and is anchored by a 30-year relationship with The Ohio State University's engineering pipeline.
What the Location Decision Is Actually Based On
Area Development's 40th Annual Site Selection Survey, published in early 2026, identified the factors that now drive foreign manufacturer location decisions. Site readiness and electric power availability tied at the top, each rated critical by 98.5 percent of respondents. Responsive state government, operating cost structure, and transmission capacity followed. Right-to-work status functions as a threshold filter for most European and Asian manufacturers whose home country management models are not designed for heavy union environments.
The pattern across every winning location is consistent. Shovel-ready industrial land. Reliable power at industrial scale. A state government that moves fast. A community college or university system building the technical pipeline. And right-to-work.
The Talent Problem Nobody Is Solving Fast Enough
The cities winning the plants are not always ready for the executives those plants need.
Deloitte and the Manufacturing Institute project 2.1 million manufacturing jobs could go unfilled by 2030, representing a potential $1 trillion loss to US GDP. In Savannah, a workforce study projected the region will face a deficit of 2,200 workers by 2027, with the shortfall beginning in 2025. Hyundai's own plant opening was complicated by housing costs and transportation infrastructure that made it difficult to attract professional and managerial talent willing to relocate to coastal Georgia.
Nationally, semiconductor technician roles have more than 100 job openings per qualified graduate. Machinists have 2.4 openings per graduate. Maintenance and repair workers have nearly 4. The Bureau of Labor Statistics recorded approximately 400,000 unfilled manufacturing positions in the first four months of 2025.
Foreign manufacturers choosing secondary markets are winning on land and incentives. They are losing on executive and engineering talent availability. The plant goes up faster than the talent pipeline fills.
The companies that solve this are the ones that treat the leadership search with the same rigor they applied to the site selection process. The city was chosen based on data, analysis, and expert guidance. The general manager and plant president search deserves the same approach.
A retained search firm with relationships in manufacturing and industrial operations finds the leaders willing to relocate to De Soto or Liberty or Bryan County — the ones who have done it before, built something in a greenfield environment, and know how to represent a foreign parent to an American workforce.
That talent does not respond to job postings. It responds to a call from someone who knows them.
For more on how we approach searches for foreign manufacturers in the US, read our international executive search guide and What Retained Search Means When You Have No US Network.
If you are ready to fill a senior role or want to talk through your search, reach out at prlinternational.com/contact
Want to know what questions to ask before hiring a search firm? Download the free 7-Question Guide: https://prl-proposal.vercel.app/guide