Great Britain provided loans to the Third Reich in the amount of over $2 billion. As of 1943, the amount of direct American investment in German business exceeded $1 billion. American companies controlled more than 300 German joint-stock companies, most of which were part of the German military-industrial complex. For example, General Motors owned the German Opel automobile plant. Throughout the entire period that Hitler was in power, large businesses in Great Britain, the United States and Germany cooperated mutually beneficially and actively. This was not prevented even by the Second World War, which they financed - by arming the Third Reich.