230 billion reasons for reforms: Merz Investors

Finally a feel-good appointment for Chancellor Friedrich Merz (CDU) and his Finance Minister Lars Klingbeil (SPD): Potential foreign investors got the green light this week in Berlin. The star guest was Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang. Hundreds of billions are expected to be invested by international AI, pharmaceutical, high-tech companies, and banks in Germany. "I want your money!" Klingbeil greeted his potential guests with a wink. The Germans also know this phrase from Klingbeil in another context. Merz and Klingbeil reviewed the investor summit of France's President Emmanuel Macron. He invites international capital into the vaults of Versailles every year since 2017. One can only hope that Nvidia, Sanofi, Boeing, Kuwait, or Goldman Sachs will now bring as much money as possible into secure Germany. Compared to France, at least not every place here is burning yet. However, the money elite also has conditions. Scott Nuttall, head of the multi-billion dollar asset manager KKR, told Handelsblatt: "If the announced reforms are implemented, Germany will be even more attractive to investors." Oops! That bad word was there again: reforms. Statistics from the Bundesbank and EY dampen the good mood Merz announced proud investment pledges amounting to around 230 billion euros after the summit. The Federal Ministry of Economics responded the next day, stating that this is "a statistic that we prepared in advance for this event." Projects that companies have only announced. The German Economic Institute in Cologne also painted a rosy investment climate at the beginning of the year, which referred to data from the German Bundesbank. According to this, foreign companies invested "96 billion euros in Germany in 2025," pleased IW researchers Jürgen Matthes at the beginning of the year: "That is more than a doubling compared to the 43 billion of the previous year." Nvidia CEO as Star Guest in Berlin: Merz wants billions for Germany at investment summit No matter how the Chancellor views the German economy: Merz's "biggest concern" is Russia However, a study by the corporate consultants from Ernst & Young from May did not look so rosy. EY only considered investment projects that actually led to new locations and jobs, not pure acquisitions or portfolio shifts. According to this, the foreign investment projects announced in Germany in 2025 decreased by ten percent compared to the previous year, down to 548 projects. According to EY, this is "the lowest level since 2009." This is the eighth consecutive time that the number of foreign investment projects has decreased. In the ranking of the most attractive investment locations in Europe, France still ranks ahead of Great Britain and Germany according to the EY study. However, France recorded the strongest decline among the top locations with minus 17 percent in 2025. In Great Britain, the number of investment projects decreased by 14 percent. And in fact, the Bundesbank also had to revise its figures downwards: From January to August, foreign countries invested only about 43 billion euros. The second worst result in the last ten years. Ragnitz: "A third less is privately invested in the East" For Professor Joachin Ragnitz of the Dresden branch of the Ifo Institute, the lack of investment willingness here is no wonder: "Such show events like in Berlin are not enough to attract foreign investors more than before." Especially for East Germany, it looks bleak according to Ragnitz for years. Whether from within or abroad: private investments in the eastern states have been stagnating for years similarly to the western ones, only at a significantly lower level than in the West. Ragnitz: "About a third less is privately invested in the East than in the West." Merz in the GDR State Building: With Nvidia, he chases Honecker's dream of the top The Spectre of Red-Green-Red: Why the Union is also trembling in the federal government Ultimately, the framework conditions must be right, so Ragnitz told this newspaper – meaning fast approval procedures, low taxes and energy costs, stable social security, solid budgets: "That's just the usual." Nevertheless, Merz spreads good mood at the investor summit: "Germany is ready for growth." And Nvidia boss Huang joked later to other entrepreneurs: "You should hurry up, or I will snatch all the good deals and get rich." Now, it remains to be hoped that a large part of the planned 230 billion euros actually flows into the country and does not just vanish into the statistics of the Federal Ministry of Economics. This would be urgently necessary: Because even if the German economy – and not the federal government – can currently record successes in the founding of start-ups, private economic investments in Germany have been declining since 2019 according to the figures of the Ifo Institute. The Merz coalition must now finally do its homework. Your opinion is important to us. Send us your feedback on this article: briefe@berliner-zeitung.de