With the rapid development of globalization, the industries of various countries are actively seeking the best way to improve the global value chain (GVC) status while integrating into the world. As an important factor affecting the GVC status, foreign direct investment (FDI) has attracted extensive attention from scholars. On the basis of systematically summarizing the research progress of FDI theory, GVC status and the influence of FDI on GVC status, the paper tries to clarify the internal relationship between FDI and GVC status, explores the shortcomings of existing research, and puts forward the possible direction of future research.