President Trump issues 'America First Investment Policy' to 'encourage foreign investment while protecting national security'

President Trump issued a National Security Presidential Memorandum (the NSPM), titled the “America First Investment Policy,” which aims to “promot[e] foreign investment while protecting America’s national security interests” (as set forth in an accompanying White House Fact Sheet). The NSPM, dated February 21, 2025, does not create any immediate changes to the rules, process or procedures of the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS), the US foreign direct investment (FDI) regulator. But it signals future changes to the US Government’s approach to both inbound, and outbound, investments, with some potentially positive implications for acquirers and investors from US ally and partner nations, and even greater scrutinty of investments from the People’s Republic of China (the PRC).

Key points from the NSPM relating to the Administration’s priorities for both US inbound and US outbound investment include the following:

• (Staying) Open for business.  The NSPM, as described in the Fact Sheet, reconfirms that “welcoming foreign investment is crucial for economic growth, job creation, and innovation, ensuring that the United States leverages its world-leading financial markets to support American jobs and innovators.” While acknowledging the benefits of foreign investment, per the NSPM those benefits need to be assessed against the US national security risks that may arise from investments emanating from “foreign adversaries,” defined in the NSPM to mean the PRC (including Hong Kong and Macau), Cuba, Iran, North Korea, the Russian Federation, and the Maduro regime in Venezuela.
• Restrictions on Chinese investment.  The new policy calls for CFIUS to restrict “PRC-affiliated persons” from investing in US technology, critical infrastructure, healthcare, agriculture (including farmland), energy, raw materials, and other sectors deemed strategic. It further advocates for establishing new rules to “stop PRC-affiliated persons from buying up critical American businesses and assets, allowing only those investments that serve American interests.” It remains to be seen whether this directive ultimately will result in CFIUS regulations directed specifically to PRC investments (and whether for example any new rules will reflect a presumption of denial framework as seen under the US export control regime), which would be a departure from CFIUS’s current jurisdiction-agnostic approach (i.e., CFIUS regulations do not contain a country-specific deny or restriction list), or whether the already heightened CFIUS scrutinty of inbound PRC investments will simply become even more strict in practice.
• Purely passive investment always welcome.  Per the NSPM, and consistent with current CFIUS regulations, the US “will continue to welcome and encourage passive investments from all foreign persons,” including foreign adversaries, provided the investments are indeed purely passive (e.g., they do not confer governance rights over US businesses nor provide for foreign access to non-public US technologies or technical data).
• CFIUS “fast track” for US allies.  The Administration is calling for an expedited “fast track” to facilitate greater investment from “specified allied and partner sources in United States businesses involved with United States advanced technology and other important areas.” This fast track would come with national security guardrails, including requirements that the allied investors “avoid partnering with United States foreign adversaries.” The NPRM does not specify how this “fast track” might depart from or enhance the current short-form CFIUS declaration filing process, nor does it address how such allied investors can demonstrate the requisite level of de-risking or perhaps even de-coupling from, most principally, the PRC.
• Expanding jurisdiction over greenfield (and other) investments.  Under current regulations, foreign greenfield investments in the US are outside CFIUS’s jurisdiction, unless the investment involves the purchase or lease of real estate within certain distances of US military installations or other sensitive US locations. The Administration plans to work with the US Congress for legislation expanding CFIUS’s authority over greenfield investments, and also restrict foreign adversary access to “United States talent and operations in sensitive technologies (especially artificial intelligence),” and to expand the list of “emerging and foundational” technologies subject to CFIUS authority.
• Limitations on mitigation agreements.  Under current practice, CFIUS can condition its clearance of a covered transaction upon the execution of a mitigation agreement that may, as but one of many examples, restrict foreign access to or control over US technologies, data, and facilities. The NSPM would cease the use of “overly bureaucratic, complex, and open-ended ‘mitigation’ agreements” for US investments from foreign adversaries. Instead, the memo calls for mitigation agreements that consist of “concrete actions that companies can complete within a specified time” instead of ongoing and seemingly perpetual monitoring.
• New or expanded outbound investment restrictions.  In addition to covering inbound investments, the Policy also impacts outbound investments. We previously reviewed the US Treasury Department’s Outbound Investment Security Program (the OISP), which took effect during the Biden Administration. The NSPM calls for expanding the sectors covered by the OISP to include biotechnology, hypersonics, aerospace, advanced manufacturing, directed energy, and other areas implicated by the PRC’s Military-Civil Fusion strategy, and calls for ongoing review of covered sectors. 

As noted, the NSPM does not create or impose any new rules or laws. Instead, under the rubric of “economic security is national security,” it directs the US Government’s departments and agencies with FDI, economic, technological and intelligence responsibilities to promulgate rules and regulations to implement the NSPM priorities noted above. The timing and contours of those new regulations are not known, but we do expect changes to come. Non-US investors, as well as US businesses seeking them, will need to keep abreast of these changes for both potential challenges (e.g., further scrutiny of PRC investment into the US and US investment into the PRC) as well as potential opportunities (e.g., fast track or other facilitation of US ally/partner investment into the United States).