Saudi Arabia Announces $7 Billion Dragon Ball Z Theme Park in France
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 already underway in Qiddiya City. Emmanuel Macron is ecstatic about the deal, saying, “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 2025 visit to Saudi Arabia,” reports Reuters. The journalist‑dismembering prince is just like us!
A Dragon Ball theme park is being built in France, developed in partnership with Qiddiya, which also plans 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 says the project will create 22,000 jobs, though construction will take several years and no opening date has been set. “Nothing like this has been seen since Disneyland Paris,” he tweeted. “A new global destination. Here, in France.”
A number of comedians, including Dave Chappelle, have been criticized for accepting large payments from the Crown Prince in exchange for performing in Riyadh. More recently, Saudi Arabia closed the biggest leveraged buyout in history and took EA, the maker of Battlefield and Madden, private, leaving many developers fearing mass layoffs.
“Thank you to Qiddiya and Saudi Arabia for their trust in our country, our talents, and our future,” Macron said. “This is the essence of Choose France: to pursue the most ambitious projects and make France the place where they become reality, to create jobs, to make France shine. We’re not done surprising the world, and we’re very proud of this achievement.”
