Existing studies have scrutinized the rise of states as global owners and investors, yet we still lack a good understanding of what state-led investment does in a globalized economy, especially in its host states. Comparative capitalisms research has analyzed foreign state investment as a potential source of patient capital for coordinated and mixed market economies. However, this patient capital framework cannot explain the recent surge of protectionist sentiments, even among the ‘good hosts’ of state-led investment. Therefore, we extend the patient capital argument and develop a broader framework centered on the globalized nature of foreign state investment. We create and empirically illustrate a novel typology based on different modes of cross-border state investment – from financial to strategic – and different categories of host states. Our results provide a new pathway to study the rise and effects of cross-border state investment in the twenty-first century.