In 2025, we are no longer on the cusp of a new era, but truly in it. This year, MGI’s fact-based insights helped make sense of the latest business and economic signals. We found that just a few “Standout” firms can move the productivity needle for entire economies. We also put forward new reasons to accelerate national productivity now, so that countries can grow their way to balance sheet health and drive prosperity. We explored ways in which the private sector could help lift more people above an “empowerment line” to meet essential needs and otherwise advance beyond environmental, social, and governance (ESG) checklists. As trade policy shifts and other geopolitical developments packed some surprises, we updated our analysis of the geometry of global trade and looked to foreign direct investment (FDI) as a window to what may come next. We also introduced a “rearrangement ratio” to better understand potential knock-on effects of US–China trade tensions.
To understand the demographics and other defining hallmarks of our new era, we delved into the consequences of falling fertility and increasing longevity. We took stock of where the energy transition stands and tallied the costs and benefits of meeting climate adaptation challenges. We also explored labor market dynamics through the lens of work-experience trajectories and emerging skills partnerships with robots and agents in the age of AI. The following data visualizations, grouped into our five core research themes, encapsulate some of our key findings over the past year.
Productivity and prosperity
Creating and harnessing the world’s assets most productively
Global connections
Exploring how flows of goods, people, and ideas shape economies
Recent patterns of FDI announcements signal a new shake-up. FDI promises to shape advanced manufacturing—including semiconductors, electric vehicles, and batteries—alongside communications and software (mostly AI infrastructure), and the resources that power them. Since 2022, three-quarters of cross-border announcements have gone to these types of future-shaping industries as well as energy and mining projects—up from about half pre-2020. If successful, FDI projects announced since 2022 could more than quadruple current battery manufacturing capacity outside China, nearly double the global data center capacity that powers AI, and draw the United States into the circle of top leading-edge semiconductor-producing nations. These patterns show how trade corridors are shifting, country competitiveness is evolving, and new business ecosystems are emerging worldwide.
Technology and markets of the future
Discussing the next big arenas of value and competition
Resources of the world
Building, powering, and feeding the world sustainably
Human potential
Maximizing and achieving the potential of human talent
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