Industry Intel

BMW completes its .7B Spartanburg expansion and Cal-Maine settles an egg price-fixing case, plus site-selection scorecards and 2026 metro rankings, billion-dollar deals from Rocket Lab-Iridium to CMA CGM-FedEx, and USMCA back in limbo.

A record year for industrial M&A and a 35 billion dollar defense order, the skilled-trades workforce squeeze, and a robotics and semiconductor building wave.

Amazon's billion Missouri data center campus, a wave of foreign direct investment landing in the U.S., and automakers pivoting into defense manufacturing.

Ingredion's .6 billion deal for Tate and Lyle, a wave of foreign manufacturers breaking ground across the South, and the workforce academies racing to staff the industrial build-out.

USA Rare Earth's .2B South Carolina magnet plant, a wave of billion-dollar rail and transit tunnels, and the AI data-center boom straining the PJM power grid.

This week: the talent barrier behind the industrial AI boom, a wave of billion-dollar plant and lab investments, and a state suing an automaker over a factory that never got built.

USG stakes $1.1 billion on a Texas gypsum plant, a wave of foreign manufacturers breaks ground on US soil, and Washington routes $2 billion in fresh CHIPS Act funding to nine chipmakers.

Toyota and USG drop a combined $3.2B on new Texas plants, manufacturing workforce shortages tighten across the apprenticeship pipeline, and the AI grid stress reshapes utility politics.

This week's Industry Intel covers 276 stories across site selection, economic development, and industrial real estate. The deep dive focuses on Foreign Direct Investment — including major inbound manufacturing announcements, how tariff uncertainty is reshaping FDI flows, and what site selectors need to know about siting projects with foreign sponsors.