Emmanuel Macron and Mohammed bin Salman signed agreements at the Elysee Palace on Monday for a theme park development worth six billion euros, about $7 billion, near Cergy-Pontoise, roughly 30km northwest of Paris, Al Jazeera reports.

Three parks are planned, one on a manga theme. Qiddiya, an investment arm of Saudi Arabia's sovereign wealth fund, will lead the project, which is expected to create about 22,000 jobs. Macron called it "extraordinary", compared its scale to Disneyland Paris and described a "new global destination".

The origin story, which is not a joke

An adviser to the French president says the project came out of a conversation between Macron and the crown prince in Riyadh in December 2024, when they discovered a shared passion for manga, and for Dragon Ball Z in particular.

We report that because a presidential adviser said it on the record, and because it is more informative than it sounds. Investments of this size are usually explained in terms of returns and strategy. An account that begins with two heads of state talking about a cartoon is a description of how these deals actually get initiated: at the top, personally, with the analysis following the decision.

What each side is getting

For Saudi Arabia, this is capital placed in a European economy rather than at home, in a visible consumer asset. Qiddiya is the fund's entertainment vehicle, and building in France buys a foothold in the world's largest tourism market.

For France, it is inward investment and 22,000 projected jobs in a suburban area, from a partner that also buys French weapons and hosted Macron's attention throughout this two-day visit, which we reported on Sunday when the agenda was energy routes around the Strait of Hormuz.

The number to treat carefully

Twenty-two thousand jobs is a projection made by the parties announcing the project, before construction has begun and with no opening date given. Employment figures at this stage of a development are estimates in the promotional sense, and they typically combine construction work, which ends, with operating jobs, which do not.

That is not a reason to disbelieve it. It is a reason to record where it came from.

What we could not establish

We could not establish an opening date, the split between construction and permanent jobs, whether French public money is involved, what planning consents are required, or which manga properties are licensed. We verified this account from a single publication.