Definition of "investor"

[…] (it was the town's humour to be always gassing of phantom investors who were likely to come any moment and pay a thousand prices for everything) — “[…] Them rich fellers, they don't make no bad breaks with their money. […]”

1899, Stephen Crane, chapter 1, in Twelve O'Clock

Across Japan, technology companies and private investors are racing to install devices that until recently they had little interest in: solar panels. Massive solar parks are popping up as part of a rapid build-up that one developer likened to an "explosion."

2013 June 21, Chico Harlan, “After Fukushima, Japan beginning to see the light in solar energy”, in The Guardian Weekly‎, volume 189, number 2, page 30