What American Business Capital Is Made Of
Shares of U.S. private nonresidential net fixed assets · current cost · 1925–2024. IP products accounted for 15.1% of accumulated business capital in 2024, far below their 40.5% share of new investment. Structures still dominate the inherited asset base.
What does it show?
IP products accounted for 15.1% of accumulated business capital in 2024, far below their 40.5% share of new investment. Structures still dominate the inherited asset base.
Methodology
Use BEA Fixed Assets Accounts annual current-cost year-end net capital stocks for private nonresidential equipment, structures, and intellectual-property products. For every year, divide each component by the sum of those three components. BEA defines intellectual-property products as software, research and development, and entertainment, literary, and artistic originals. Current-cost shares combine quantity and price change and should not be read as real growth rates. Limitations: BEA's intellectual-property category captures measured fixed assets, not brands, organizational capital, customer relationships, data, or every other economically valuable intangible. Current-cost composition can change because of asset prices as well as real investment or stock accumulation. The categories describe produced fixed assets owned by private businesses and nonprofits; they do not measure financial assets or market capitalization. BEA revises Fixed Assets history; the prototype records the workbook vintage and reruns its component-identity checks on refresh.