Existing research on the security of the supply of critical materials for clean energy generally aggregates information at the country level, a practice that obscures the extensive role of foreign direct investment (FDI) in the production of critical materials. FDI refers to an ownership stake in a company or project by an overseas investor. Here we establish a database for global mining of lithium, cobalt, nickel and platinum at company level, covering 240 countries and regions. We show that 47% of lithium, 71% of cobalt, 41% of nickel and 34% of platinum mined in 2019 were under FDI. We then explore how FDI may affect supply risks by proposing a supply risk index that allocates production of the critical materials to the country of origin of investors instead of the country where production is located. We present upper and lower bounds of the supply risk index that reflect scenarios where either all investors or only state investors prioritize the home-country demand, respectively. This study presents an approach for assessing the national supply risks of critical materials, considering the geographical allocation of FDI.

现有关于清洁能源关键材料供应安全的研究通常会汇总国家层面的信息，这种做法掩盖了外国直接投资（FDI）在关键材料生产中的广泛作用。 FDI是指海外投资者对一家公司或项目的所有权股权。在这里，我们建立了全球锂、钴、镍、铂开采公司层面的数据库，覆盖240个国家和地区。我们发现，2019 年开采的 47% 的锂、71% 的钴、41% 的镍和 34% 的铂来自 FDI。然后，我们通过提出供应风险指数来探讨外国直接投资如何影响供应风险，该指数将关键材料的生产分配给投资者的原籍国而不是生产所在国。我们提出了供应风险指数的上限和下限，分别反映了所有投资者或仅国家投资者优先考虑本国需求的情况。本研究提出了一种评估关键材料的国家供应风险的方法，同时考虑了外国直接投资的地理分配。