Anheuser-Busch will invest $2 billion

The maker of Budweiser, facing more competition in America from craft brews and cocktails, is spending billions to fight back.

Anheuser-Busch InBev will devote $2 billion in capital spending to bolstering its flagship brands and improving distribution. The money also will help support the company's forays into 'near beer,” alcoholic sparkling water and other products - such as tea - that are far afield from its original mission.

The investment, which extends through 2020, is a bet that Anheuser-Busch can push into new categories without neglecting its core business - traditional beer brands. Striking that balance will be key to the company's future, Anheuser-Busch CEO Joao Castro Neves said.

'What we are trying to do is the ‘and' and not the ‘or,'” he said.

The first $500 million will be spent this year on what Castro Neves calls the company's three pillars - elevating its biggest beer brands, building its presence in craft brews and imports, and pushing beyond regular beer into low-alcohol beverages and other drinks.

Anheuser-Busch already has bought nine U.S. craft-beer brands, and it's in the process of closing a deal for Asheville, N.C.-based Wicked Weed, which makes beers with names such as Angel of Darkness, Iron Lady and Barrel Aged French Toast.