Chinese miners, carmakers and tech firms are fanned out across 20 states, putting a dent in Washington’s own push throughout the region
4-MIN READ4-MIN ListenIgor Patrickin Rio de JaneiroPublished: 10:30pm, 7 May 2026China made Brazil its top global investment destination last year, pouring US$6.1 billion into the country across a record 52 projects. The figures come from the China-Brazil Business Council (CBBC), which released its annual report on Thursday.The 45 per cent jump in value from the previous year far outpaced the 4.8 per cent rise in total foreign investment into Brazil. It also dwarfed China’s worldwide outbound flows, which grew just 1.3 per cent. Brazil absorbed 10.9 per cent of all Chinese overseas capital, ahead of the US at 6.8 per cent.
Tulio Cariello, the report’s author and director of research at CBBC, said the headline number mattered less than where Chinese money was going.
Mining investment more than tripled, Chinese carmakers opened factories on sites vacated by Western carmakers, tech firms, including Meituan’s food delivery arm, launched operations and projects in sustainability and green energy hit a record 31, or 60 per cent of all Chinese ventures in Brazil that year.
Chinese firms poured US$1.76 billion into mining, more than triple the 2024 figure. CMOC bought gold mines from Canada’s Equinox Gold for roughly US$1 billion. MMG acquired Anglo American’s Brazilian nickel operations for US$500 million. And newcomer Baiyin Nonferrous bought a copper mine in the northeastern state of Alagoas for US$243 million.
