The economic upheaval resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic has led many governments to enhance their foreign investment screening mechanisms or introduce new ones – in the midst of an already steep drop of global FDI flows. Investment screening was already enjoying a heyday before the COVID-19 crisis – the pandemic is accelerating, rather than triggering this trend. The accumulation of the two waves of new measures may bring about transformational change to investment screening policy practice and to the way governments and societies view the benefits and risks associated with foreign investment.