Intelligence We Think Matters

GLOBAL INVESTMENT

Catalyzing competitiveness: Where investment happens and why

McKinsey Global Institute

30 June 2026

Where investment lands, and who pays for it

McKinsey Global Institute makes a persuasive case for treating productive investment as a practical measure of competitiveness, then maps it line by line across ten industries. The diagnosis is hard to dispute: investment has stalled in Europe, shifted in the United States and pulled away in China, and Europe faces an annual gap of around €800 billion. The Gulf appears as a place where things get built competitively, from Saudi polyethylene and Omani steel to Emirati nuclear delivery. What the map does not show is Gulf capital as a source of that investment. For Nordic boards, that is the missing line.

Dr Ahmed Talib

Co-Founder & Managing Partner

Figures from the report: investment gap pp. 3 and 19; ten industries pp. 5 and 62; Saudi polyethylene pp. 96 to 100; Omani steel pp. 82 to 91; Emirati nuclear delivery pp. 35 and 66 to 69.

• Productive investment as a measure of competitiveness across China, the United States and Europe.
• Line-by-line levelised costs for ten industries, from nuclear power to data centres.
• Seven levers companies and countries can use to rebuild investment competitiveness.

This is NordGulf Alliance's independent reading of a publicly available report. It does not imply any relationship with the publisher and is not investment advice.