France Celebrates $7 Billion Dragon Ball Z Theme Park Paid For By Saudi Arabia: ‘You Know My Passion For Manga’

First, it bought golf, then Electronic Arts, and now Saudi Arabia is paying $7 billion to build a Dragon Ball Z theme park in France. It will be the second one in the world, with construction on the first already underway in Qiddiya City. Emmanuel Macron is ecstatic about the deal. “You know my passion for manga,” he wrote on X. “You also know my determination to attract to France the investments that create jobs and make the most ambitious projects possible.”
The plan was announced right after Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s visit to the French capital today. Why, you might ask? “The idea was born after French President Emmanuel Macron and the Saudi crown prince discovered a shared enthusiasm for Dragon Ball Z during Macron’s visit to Saudi Arabia in 2025,” reports Reuters. The journalist-dismembering prince is just like us!
A Dragon Ball theme park is in the works in France.
Developed in partnership with Qiddiya, which is set to open a similar park in Riyadh.https://t.co/oI94QSdOEV pic.twitter.com/Tk2CpyAPNX— Catsuka (@catsuka) August 11, 2026
It will be one of three theme parks in Cergy-Pontoise, just northwest of Paris. Macron is touting the deal as a project that will create 22,000 jobs. Construction will take several years, however, and there’s no set date for the parks to open. “Nothing like this has been seen since Disneyland Paris,” he tweeted. “A new global destination. Here, in France.”
It’s the latest example of Saudi Arabia leveraging its sovereign wealth fund to insert itself on the global cultural stage. The country has been buying relevance in the worlds of sports, entertainment, video games, and now anime as it seeks to distract from its human rights abuses and autocratic regime.
A bunch of comedians, including Dave Chappelle, were called out last year for taking big sacks of money from the Crown Prince in return for performing in Riyadh. More recently, Saudi Arabia closed the biggest leveraged buyout in history and took EA, maker of Battlefield and Madden, private. Many developers at the company are now bracing for mass layoffs.
“Thank you to Qiddiya and Saudi Arabia for their trust in our country, in our talents, and in our future,” Macron continued. “This is the very essence of Choose France: to seek out the most ambitious projects and make France the country where they become reality. To create jobs. To make France shine. We’re not done surprising the world. Very proud of this achievement.”

Facts Only

* Saudi Arabia is paying $7 billion to build a Dragon Ball Z theme park in France.
* Construction on the first park is underway in Qiddiya City.
* Emmanuel Macron expressed excitement about the deal regarding job creation and ambitious projects.
* The idea for the park originated from a shared enthusiasm for Dragon Ball Z between French President Macron and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman during a 2025 visit to Saudi Arabia.
* The theme park will be one of two in the world, with construction on the first already underway.
* The plan is developed in partnership with Qiddiya, which plans a similar park in Riyadh.
* Macron referred to the project as creating 22,000 jobs.

Executive Summary

Saudi Arabia is paying $7 billion to build a Dragon Ball Z theme park in France, which will be the second such park globally, with construction starting in Qiddiya City. French President Emmanuel Macron expressed enthusiasm for the deal, citing a desire to attract investments that create jobs and ambitious projects, referencing Disneyland Paris as a benchmark. The idea for the theme park arose from a shared enthusiasm for Dragon Ball Z discovered during a visit by Macron to Saudi Arabia in 2025. The project is being developed in partnership with Qiddiya, which plans to build a similar park in Riyadh. The development is expected to create 22,000 jobs, though the opening date remains undetermined due to the multi-year construction timeline.

Full Take

This development illustrates a strategic attempt by Saudi Arabia to gain global cultural relevance through investment in entertainment and media franchises, positioning sovereign wealth funds as instruments for external projection. The linkage between cultural affinity (manga) and geopolitical investment suggests a form of soft power projection aimed at offsetting domestic political challenges through visible global engagement. The simultaneous actions—pursuing large-scale private equity acquisitions like the EA buyout and securing massive cultural projects—suggest a coordinated strategy of leveraging economic and cultural influence to redefine national standing. The emphasis on creating jobs, as expressed by Macron, serves both an internal narrative of positive development and an external projection of successful governance. The underlying pattern involves utilizing high-profile, globally recognized intellectual property as a mechanism for state-level engagement, shifting the focus from geopolitical friction to shared, aspirational cultural consumption. What alternative frameworks exist for understanding sovereign investment in transnational pop culture, and who bears the long-term costs associated with this pursuit of global attention?

Sentinel — Human

Confidence

The text blends factual reporting on a specific project with interpretative commentary regarding geopolitical motivations, suggesting human journalistic synthesis rather than raw AI generation.

Signals Detected

Sentence length variance is moderate; the tone shifts between factual reporting and anecdotal framing.

The text successfully weaves disparate elements (theme park, political maneuvering, cultural interest) into a narrative thread, demonstrating thematic coherence.

Use of specific references (names, dates, event timelines) suggests grounding in external reporting, though the initial claim about the 2025 meeting requires verification.

The attribution of a speculative, highly specific shared enthusiasm between Macron and the Crown Prince, while framed as a reported discovery, leans toward narrative construction rather than direct reporting.

Human Indicators

Use of direct quotes from Macron and reporter attribution (Reuters) suggests engagement with primary sources.

The integration of tangential elements (Chappelle jokes, LBO news) provides a layered commentary that is characteristic of editorial analysis rather than pure data reporting.