The Benjamin Graham (who taught Warren Buffett) distinction between investment and speculation is: "An investment operation is one which, upon thorough analysis promises safety of principal and an adequate return. Operations not meeting these requirements are speculative."
Personally, I think it's helpful to think of it as a spectrum rather than as a necessarily binary distinction. Graham's definition is nice and succinct, but the problem comes with the word "promises". The safety of principal for anything cannot be guaranteed beyond all doubt.
No, usually investment provides money for people that want to build something with it, and you get it (and a small profit, for the risk) back afterwards.
In this case, though, no one but you has a benefit.
