Usage of preposition in word "invest"

Question

I am Korean English learner:)

Here is my question.

However, last year, my university invested a significant amount of money to introduce a greater number or healthy food options at its cafeterias.

This sentence is from the TOEFL passage.

I am curious about the word invest in this sentence. I learned we use preposition "in" after the word "invest". However, in this sentence I cannot find "in" but "to".

Thus I found this usage and meaning in the dictionary, and it said using invest both < invest + object + pp > and < invest + object >. I think the sentence used invest as usage of < invest + object + pp > then why there is no in in the sentence but to? (before the introduce)

Answer 1

What you learned there is absolutely correct. Most of the time, we do use the preposition in after the verb invest. The preposition into is also possible, but in is used a lot more commonly. However, the to that you're talking about there is not a preposition at all. It's something called an infinitive marker which goes along with the verb introduce and indicates that the verb introduce is being used in its infinitive form (for example, to buy, to see and to watch are all the infinitive forms of the verbs buy, see and watch respectively). One of the goals of using verbs in their infinitive forms is to specify the purpose of an action. For instance, to see in I went there to see the man specifies the purpose of the action of going there. I went there for the purpose of seeing the man. Consider this sentence:

They invested lots of money in the company to make even more money.

Now, I will ask you the following question what was the purpose of them investing lots of money in the company? The answer you should give would be the purpose of them investing lots of money in the company was to make even more money. Do you see how this works?

So, we could rewrite your sentence like this:

However, last year, my university invested a significant amount of money (in its infrastructure) for the purpose of introducing a greater number of healthy food options at its cafeterias.

Answer 2

From Cambridge Dictionary

to invest

to put money, effort, time, etc. into something to make a profit or get an advantage

Notice that I've marked two words above: into and to.

into (or in) marks what you buy, to marks what you expect to gain with your investment.

Let me rephrase your sentence

However, last year, my university invested a significant amount of money in new vending machines to introduce a greater number or healthy food options at its cafeterias.

Well, maybe "vending machines" is not a good option, but I don't know what exactly bought that university. Lots of carrots? Please, suggests items that this university may have adquired and I gladly will edit my post. :-)