A Century of Business Investment
A hundred years of what American firms actually buy when they invest, drawn as a single flowing stream: structures (slate), equipment (terracotta), and intellectual-property products (cobalt) as shares of nonresidential fixed investment since 1925. The composition inverts over the century — buildings dominate the 1920s, machines the mid-century, and ideas take the largest share by the 2020s, a shift from an economy that builds to one that designs.
What does it show?
In 1925, buildings took 41% of U.S. business investment and ideas barely 3%. By 2024, intellectual-property products — software, R&D, content — claim 41%, the largest share, while structures have shrunk to 22%.
Methodology
Each asset category's share of total U.S. private nonresidential fixed investment, from the BEA fixed assets accounts via the deployed intangible-investment-composition instrument. Shares are drawn as a centered stream so the eye reads shifting composition rather than absolute dollars; the three categories sum to 100% of nonresidential investment each year.