It's called globalization, a.k.a. free market principles of specialization, economy of scale and entrepreneurialism, more-or-less unfettered by political boundaries. Consequently, in the arena of UK electric market deregulation in the 90's:

"Between the middle of 1995 and early 1997, U.S. utilities acquired eight of the twelve privatized regional electricity companies [in the United Kingdom]... Had the Southern Company/National Power merger and the National Power/Southern Electric acquisition gone through, a U.S. utility would have become the largest power generation company as well as the largest distribution company in the United Kingdom." -- from http://64.233.167.104/search?q=cache:k7PD6uUT-3QJ:...

So US companies have invested in overseas infrastructure for years. Yes, European, Canadian, Australian, South American companies, etc. are getting into the act, and sometimes, US infrastructure is involved. Meanwhile, IBM has been populating the world with its products for years, as has Boeing, to name but 2 examples; Ford has ownership stakes in overseas auto manufacturers (e.g. Volvo; Mazda), with their attendant plants & workers & economic impacts. Is this not the way of the free world, which we all -- Americans no less than anyone else -- have benefitted from for years and years and years?