# CFIUS The **Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS)** is the interagency body, chaired by the Treasury Secretary, that reviews foreign acquisitions of American businesses for national-security risk and can recommend that the President block or unwind them. Created by executive order in 1975, given statutory teeth by the Exon–Florio amendment (1988) after Japanese acquisitions, and expanded by FIRRMA (2018) to reach minority stakes, real estate near military sites and sensitive personal data after the first wave of Chinese technology investment, it is the instrument through which the United States decides which foreigners may own what. ## What it did in 2025 Treasury's report for 2025 shows an "America First" committee that behaved much as before: 347 filings (207 notices, 140 declarations, up 7%), 274 distinct transactions, 15 requiring mitigation, 234 mitigation agreements under monitoring, two presidential orders — the forced divestiture of Jupiter Systems from China's Suirui, enforced through a federal receivership, and the reversal of Biden's block on Nippon Steel's purchase of U.S. Steel, approved with a "golden share" (see [[US Steel Nippon Golden Share]]). [[China]] again led in notices (33), Japan, the UAE and Canada in distinct deals; civil penalties fell from five to zero. The policy layer changed more than the practice: the February 2025 *America First Investment Policy* memorandum promised faster review for allies and an end to "open-ended" mitigation for adversaries, a Known Investor fast-track pilot followed in May 2025, and a July 29, 2026 risk matrix named eight elevated-risk categories from critical infrastructure to technology transfer. ## Why it is in the vault CFIUS is where the national-security state meets the deal economy, and the second term has used it both ways. The [[TikTok Ban (2020-2025)]] began as a CFIUS matter — the committee's 2019 review of ByteDance's Musical.ly purchase — before Congress wrote the divest-or-ban law; the 2026 joint venture that resolved it, with [[Susquehanna International Group]]'s Jeff Yass on the board, was blessed by the same executive that had demanded the sale. The Nippon golden share turned an investment-screening tool into an ownership stake for the government. And the Gulf money that now flows into American AI and defense firms passes through a committee whose chair, [[Scott Bessent]], serves a President whose family does business with the same funds. The selective application is visible: when Sen. [[Chris Murphy]] called for a CFIUS review of [[Saudi Arabia]]'s ~$1.9B stake in [[Elon Musk]]'s Twitter acquisition in October 2022 — [[Prince Alwaleed bin Talal]] was the platform's second-largest shareholder — no public investigation followed, even as the committee simultaneously pursued [[TikTok]] for years over Chinese ownership (see [[Musk Twitter Acquisition]]). See [[Sovereign Wealth Fund]] and [[Foreign Influence Hub]] for the other side of the ledger, and [[Supply Chain]] and [[Tariffs]] for the decoupling the committee is the gatekeeper of. ## See Also - [[Department of the Treasury]] · [[Scott Bessent]] · [[China]] · [[Supply Chain]] · [[Tariffs]] - [[TikTok]] · [[TikTok Ban (2020-2025)]] · [[Nippon Steel]] · [[US Steel Nippon Golden Share]] · [[Susquehanna International Group]] - [[Sovereign Wealth Fund]] · [[Foreign Influence Hub]]