The federal government is talking about investment commitments running into billions

Investment summit in Berlin Merz advertises for capital - and reports first commitments As of: October 20, 2026 • 2:23 p.m

The investment summit in Berlin is intended to attract more capital to Germany. Chancellor Merz and Economics Minister Reiche are already talking about initial commitments: companies are said to have announced investments worth billions.

According to Chancellor Friedrich Merz, there are billions of euros in investment commitments in the German economy. At the “Invest in Germany” conference, the Chancellor spoke of commitments totaling 800 billion euros by 2028, which are to be invested by several companies in German business locations.

Federal Minister of Economics Katherina Reiche also spoke of investment commitments amounting to billions. She emphasized on Deutschlandfunk that there were commitments of 228 billion euros. This sum only includes projects with a volume of more than 100 million euros. The exact time frame and context in which the commitments were made remained unclear at first.

Amazon already announced concrete investments at the summit. The US company wants to invest around 16 billion euros in Germany next year. The money will, among other things, flow into the expansion of data centers for the cloud provider AWS and the modernization of the logistics locations.

At an investment summit in Berlin, the federal government is promoting Germany as a business location. more

Merz used the summit in Berlin to highlight Germany's strengths as a location. The Chancellor used clichés to help him: "Germans are considered hard-working, go to bed early and get up before sunrise." Rush hour traffic is heaviest between 6 and 7 a.m. in the morning. "When we're on vacation, we're the first ones on the beach and lay out our towels before breakfast. And when we agree delivery dates, we stick to them."

Germans are reliable, predictable, precise and not good for surprises, said Merz. "In short: we are exactly what investors value most." The good thing about clichés is that they are often full of truth. In addition, Germany offers investors a unique combination of industrial excellence, technological innovation and access to one of the world's largest domestic markets, said the CDU politician.

Demian von Osten, ARD Berlin, about the investment summit with Chancellor Merz and Finance Minister Klingbeil tagesschau, Das Erste, October 20, 2026 • 3:00 p.m. Around 200 company bosses on site The summit began on Monday evening. Around 200 company bosses from home and abroad arrived. At the start, the federal government announced a partnership with the company Nvidia.

This topic in the program: The First | News | Oct 20, 2026 | 10:40 a.m.BR24 Radio | News | Oct 20, 2026 | 1:00 p.m. Das Erste | News | Oct 20, 2026 | 2:00 p.m