Texas businessman Michael Guidry says he has a $1.5 billion plan to help the U.S. gain a strategic foothold in Africa, which he says is being overrun with investors from other countries, primarily China.

For the past three years, Guidry has been laying the groundwork for what he envisions as North Africa’s “most highly-automated and largest deep sea port.” He wants to build the port on the coast of the Mediterranean Sea near the town of Susah in oil-rich Libya. But first he needs investors.

Michael Guidry.