Pressure on US industrial infrastructure is set to increase after Mexico's booming manufacturing sector was given a further boost by Tesla's plans to site a major gigafactory in the north of the country. 

The project, announced by Mexico's President Andrés Manuel López Obrador last week and confirmed by Tesla the following day, will initially involve $5 billion in capital investment and create 5,000 jobs but those figures are expected to eventually double. The site will spread across nearly 4,200 acres in an industrial zone in the border state of Nuevo Leon – almost twice the size of Tesla's factory site in Texas.  Construction is slated to start in three months.

Currently in an aggressive internationalization phase to meet sales demand, Tesla is one of the most prolific creators of greenfield foreign direct investment (FDI) and its projects are highly sought after by government investment promotion agencies worldwide. The cache and amplifier effect of a Telsa factory, along with the jobs created, has made it a coveted prize. Berlin and Shanghai had been the only non-US locations to win Tesla gigafactories, with Mexico set to become the third.