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Friedrich Merz
Friedrich Merz
Chancellor, Germany
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FULL: Friedrich Merz Addresses Germany’s Economic Growth and Competitiveness | AC15

📅 Sep 30, 2026 DWS News and DRM News 19 MIN 420 VIEWS 8 SEGMENTS · 2 SPEAKERS
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz speaks in Berlin on September 30, 2026, at the annual review meeting of the Made for Germany initiative, one year after the coalition of companies and investors was launched. The initiative now includes 147 companies and investors and says its members plan to invest more than €850 billion in Germany through 2028. Discussions focus on investment, industrial competitiveness, innovation, artificial intelligence, infrastructure and measures aimed at strengthening Germany’s economic outlook. Germany’s leading economic institutes recently raised their 2026 growth f...

What Friedrich Merz said

Written from the verified transcript and checked against it. Every figure links to the moment it was said.

Friedrich Merz celebrated the one-year anniversary of the Made for Germany initiative, noting investment commitments grew from 600 billion euros to over 800 billion euros and member companies more than doubled to over 140. He highlighted concrete projects like the Telekom-SAP industrial AI cloud in Munich, Infineon's Smart Power Fab in Dresden, and Zeiss's Jena campus. Merz urged the Mittelstand to better use its data, calling it a unique location advantage. He discussed the Investment and Future Act, which accelerates infrastructure projects, and the High-Tech Agenda Germany. He mentioned the capital-covered pension reform, the upcoming Savings and Investments Union discussion, and Germany's 1.3% growth this year. He noted record startup formation, with 10 new unicorns and 8 billion euros in venture capital raised in nine months. He announced the 'Invest in Germany' conference in two weeks.

Key takeaways

  1. Investment commitments in Made for Germany grew from 600 billion to over 800 billion euros, with member companies more than doubling to over 140.
  2. Germany's economic growth is 1.3% this year, revised upward by research institutes, but forecasts for 2027/28 are slightly downward.
  3. Startups raised 8 billion euros in venture capital in the first nine months of 2026, surpassing last year's 7.5 billion, with 10 new unicorns.
  4. The Investment and Future Act, in force since July 21, accelerates infrastructure projects by waiving new planning approval procedures for replacement structures.

Numbers and commitments

FigureWhat it refers toTypeAt
over 800 billion euros Total investment commitments in Made for Germany initiative commitment 3:35
over 140 Number of member companies in the initiative metric 3:35
1.3% Germany's economic growth this year metric 6:36
8 billion euros Venture capital raised by startups in first nine months of 2026 metric 6:36
7.5 billion Venture capital raised by startups in all of 2025 metric 6:36
10 New unicorns gained in Germany this year metric 6:36
39 Total number of unicorns in Germany now metric 6:36
July 21 Date the Investment and Future Act came into force timeline 6:36
600 billion euros Initial investment commitments at the kick-off event a year ago commitment 3:35
Roland Busch 0:02 ↗
Yes, dear guests, then we can now continue our program, and for that, Roland, please come back on stage once more.
Yes, dear Mr. Chancellor, dear Mr. Merz, thank you very much for being here today. We met a year ago at your place — we were guests at yours — and today we are delighted that you have come to us here in the Mosaikalle of Siemens. And we have 90 minutes, I've learned, so I'm taking up a lot of your time. Thank you for that already.
Now, we've drawn up a bit of a balance sheet. I think the room will have to hear it two or three more times, but that's fine. We started with nine working groups and added one more — that was the one on raw materials, very important. We developed 150 measures, two pages written for each thematic field, also with clear recommendations. And above all, what was very important: we said that initiative means investments, but it also means strengthening the dialogue between business and politics. We had new CEO dialogues, where we always tried to be present. 18 further conversations at working level, an EU position paper, 'Play to Win' for the EU competitiveness summit. For me personally, the Hannover Messe was a great success, and I have to say once again, thank you very, very much. After that, you pushed extremely hard to defuse the AI Act, so that machines are not regulated once again. Thank you very, very much for that.
And yes, we delivered — of the 850 billion, 200 billion have already been spent. I've only written down a few highlights here; I can't name them all. Infineon in Dresden with 5 billion — one of the most modern semiconductor plants in Europe. The same again: the semiconductor plant from GlobalFoundries, also in Dresden, over 1 billion. Merzfarmer der Sau Rosslau, 100 million. Opel in Rüsselsheim, 1 billion for four new Opel models. Siemens in Frankfurt Offenbach, 300 million for switchgear — which, by the way, also goes into data centers. And then Telekom, Nvidia, SAP — they have doubled the GPU capacity in Germany. We have grown to 147 companies and, as I said, have planned 850 billion. Now it's investments between 2025 and 2028. There are 200 flagship projects that we also always talk about. Maybe one more personal experience that I'd like to share: you recently invited me to your cabinet meeting in Neuhardenberg. I was astonished by the great openness on the topic of what is happening in the technology sector, how we can bring growth and competitiveness back to the country, and industrial KI. My personal feeling — or rather my people's — is that something is happening. We notice it in conversations with ministries. Klingbeil also spoke about how important this topic is. It is important; it is the century opportunity for Germany that we must seize. And since we're talking about opportunities, that's what we want to talk about today, and that's why we look forward to your keynote. A warm welcome.

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APA

Merz, F. (2026, September 30). FULL: Friedrich Merz Addresses Germany’s Economic Growth and Competitiveness | AC15 [Interview transcript]. DWS News and DRM News. CEOInterviews.AI. https://ceointerviews.ai/interview/2956636/

MLA

Friedrich Merz. "FULL: Friedrich Merz Addresses Germany’s Economic Growth and Competitiveness | AC15." DWS News and DRM News, 30 Sep. 2026. Transcript, CEOInterviews.AI, https://ceointerviews.ai/interview/2956636/.

BibTeX 
@misc{merz2026_2956636,
  author       = {Friedrich Merz},
  title        = {FULL: Friedrich Merz Addresses Germany’s Economic Growth and Competitiveness | AC15},
  howpublished = {Interview transcript, DWS News and DRM News. CEOInterviews.AI},
  year         = {2026},
  month        = {sep},
  url          = {https://ceointerviews.ai/interview/2956636/},
  note         = {Speaker-attributed transcript with timestamps}
}