While America's economy is waiting for a new jolt of innovation to jumpstart the ongoing but sluggish recovery, there are some bright spots of private-sector investment, according to the Progressive Policy Institute's annual report, "U.S. Investment Heroes of 2013: The Companies Betting on America's Future."

Although business investment, outside of housing, is still 20 percent below its long-term trend, coauthors Diana G. Carew andMichael Mandel found that American companies continue to place big bets on America's future, creating jobs and raising productivity in the process. The top five companies alone poured over $66 billion into the deployment of high-speed broadband, oil and natural gas production and new corporate and retail facilities – an astonishing total almost twice the GDP of Wyoming.

"Business investment is essential if we want to return to a high-growth economy based on production rather than consumption," says Michael Mandel, chief economic strategist for the Progressive Policy Institute.

This year's ranking of "U.S. Investment Heroes" tells a clear story about which types of companies are investing in America's future. The list is comprised significantly of three types of companies: cable and telecommunications, technology, and energy. In fact, companies in these three categories make up 18 out of the 25 on the list. This year's list also features a few retailers, all of which have an expansive Internet presence, as well as the additions of Union Pacific Railroad and Amazon.

"Telecommunications and cable, energy, and technology companies are at the top of our list, showing which sectors are driving U.S. economic growth," says Diana G. Carew, an economist at the Progressive Policy Institute.

Top 25 Nonfinancial Companies by Estimated U.S. Capital Expenditure

1. AT&T - $19.5 billion
2. Verizon Communications - $15.0 billion
3. Exxon Mobil - $12.2 billion
4. Chevron - $10.7 billion
5. Intel - $8.8 billion
6. Walmart Stores - $8.3 billion
7. Occidental Petroleum - $7.6 billion
8. ConocoPhillips - $6.1 billion
9. Exelon - $5.8 billion
10. Comcast - $5.7 billion
11. Duke Energy  - $5.4 billion
12. Hess - $4.7 billion
13. Sprint Nextel - $4.3 billion
14. Union Pacific Railroad - $3.7 billion
15. General Motors - $3.7 billion
16. Enterprise Products Partners - $3.6 billion
17. Time Warner Cable - $3.1 billion
18. Microsoft - $3.0 billion
19. Amazon - $2.9 billion
20. CenturyLink - $2.9 billion
21. Ford Motor - $2.7 billion
22. Walt Disney - $2.7 billion
23. FedEx - $2.6 billion
24. Apple- $2.6 billion
25. Target - $2.3 billion

Total Economic Investment - $149.8 billion

PPI also presented a list of the top 25 non-energy companies investing the U.S. economy. This list included IBM, Kroger, United Airlines, CVS Caremark, Delta Airlines, HP, DirecTV and Boeing.

Given the importance of investment as a path to sustainable growth, PPI believes it is essential our economic policies make domestic business investment a priority. The report offers a few key policy recommendations for Congress and the Obama Administration to encourage further investment.

A copy of the report can be found at PPI's website at http://www.progressivepolicy.org/USIH_2013.