Why are These Companies Betting BIG on AMERICA?

The economy of the United States is sluggish at best. The headline unemployment rate has remained above 8 percent for 41 consecutive months, while the most recent reading of gross domestic product showed the economy grew at a very modest 1.9 percent in the first-quarter. Despite the downturn, many companies are still betting heavily on America.

The Progressive Policy Institute, a Washington D.C.-based think tank, recently conducted a study that highlights companies that are investing domestically in buildings, equipment and software. Using publicly available financial documents, the organization compiled a list of the top 25 non-financial U.S.-based companies according to their 2011 capital expenditures. These 25 companies were then called “Investment Heroes” to make a key point: “The U.S. economy is at its best-in terms of growth and job creation-when companies and workers are partners with the same objectives.” The 25 companies invested a total of about $136 billion domestically last year.

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Financial and foreign-based countries were not included in the study due to regulatory requirements and data comparability issues. The PPI explains, “Certainly there are non-U.S. based companies like BP (NYSE:BP) and Toyota (NYSE:TM) that would have made the list if included-BP invested $8.8 billion and Toyota $2.7 billion in the U.S. in 2011. We anticipate constructing a list of non-US investment heroes sometime soon.”

Listed below are the top 25 “Investment Heroes” and the amount they spent on capital investments last year, according to the Progressive Policy Institute. As you can see, big spenders in the Telecom and Energy sectors topped the list.

AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T) $20.1 Billion
Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ) $16.2 Billion
Exxon Mobil Corp. (NYSE:XOM) $11.7 Billion
Wal-Mart Stores Inc. (NYSE:WMT) $8.2 Billion
Intel Corp. (NASDAQ:INTC) $7.4 Billion
Occidental Petroleum Corp. (NYSE:OXY) $6.2 Billion
ConocoPhillips (NYSE:COP) $5.6 Billion
Comcast Corp. (NASDAQ:CMCSA) $5.3 Billion
Chevron Corp. (NYSE:CVX) $4.8 Billion
Southern Co. (NYSE:SO) $4.5 Billion
Hess Corp. (NYSE:HES) $4.4 Billion
Exelon Corp. (NYSE:EXC) $4.0 Billion
Ford Motor Co. (NYSE:F) $3.9 Billion
General Electric Co. (NYSE:GE) $3.7 Billion
Enterprise Products Partners LP (NYSE:EPD) $3.6 Billion
Sprint Nextel Corp. (NYSE:S) $3.1 Billion
Walt Disney Co. (NYSE:DIS) $3.0 Billion
FedEx Corp. (NYSE:FDX) $2.9 Billion
Time Warner Cable Inc. (NYSE:TWC) $2.9 Billion
General Motors Co. (NYSE:GM) $2.8 Billion
Target Corp. (NYSE:TGT) $2.5 Billion
International Business Machines Corp. (NYSE:IBM) $2.5 Billion
Chrysler Group $2.5 Billion
Google Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) $2.2 Billion
Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) $2.0 Billion

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