BRIEF / Documentation [FR – Lire en français] – Defence Industrial and Technolical Base Financing: Toward a New Model of Concertation

One year after the mobilization call of March 2025, the financial sector has significantly accelerated its support for France’s Defence Industrial and Technological Base (BITD): a 26% increase in bank financing (€46.6 billion) and more than thirty investment vehicles created in twelve months (over €7 billion) – an unprecedented level. The State-finance-industry dialogue (Club des investisseurs, Tibi initiative¹) is structuring a new model combining financial markets and deeptech. Against a backdrop of rearmament, France’s dynamic is now inscribed within a European logic, with one clear objective: strengthening an integrated and resilient European Defence Industrial and Technological Base (EDTIB).

Underway for several years, this evolution now marks a shift in scale in BITD financing. As stated in a joint press release from the French Ministry of Armed Forces and Veterans Affairs and the French Ministry of Economy, Finance and Industrial Sovereignty:

« On 20 March 2025, the Ministers of Armed Forces and of Economy and Finance had called on private investors and banking networks to mobilise in support of the defence industry, in order to preserve France’s strategic autonomy and sovereignty.

Brought together again at the initiative of Ministers Catherine Vautrin and Roland Lescure, financial actors and industrialists took stock of this unprecedented year of mobilisation.

One year after the mobilization call, the financing of the defence industry has profoundly evolved

French defence companies’ financing by major banking groups, already historically high, has seen a sharp acceleration, rising by +26% in 2025 to reach €46.6 billion. The clarification of banks’ exclusion policies has favoured increased financing volumes for security and defence. The full compatibility of defence sector investments with the prevailing European sustainable finance framework was clearly reaffirmed in a European Commission opinion on 30 December 2025.

The event confirmed a collective awakening: faced with the imperative of rearmament, the Minister of Armed Forces and Veterans Affairs notes that « the factory has become the new weapon. » The planned increase in defence budgets, embodied in the update to the Military Programming Law (LPM), requires private investment to amplify industrial capability, increase production rates and support innovation.

France’s rearmament dynamic is part of a continent-wide movement. The challenge is twofold: responding to operational urgency while building an integrated and resilient European Defence Industrial and Technological Base (EDTIB). (…) »²

 

 

Notes:

¹ The Tibi initiative, named after Philippe Tibi, the professor who led the report at its origin, was launched by the French State in 2019. Driven by the Ministry of Economy, Finance and Industrial Sovereignty, it aims to channel institutional savings (insurers, funds, etc.) toward the financing of French technological innovation, now serving as an indirect lever in support of the BITD.

² Read the full DICoD press release in PDF: BITD Financing – 15 April 2026 >>> https://www.defense.gouv.fr/salle-de-presse

 

Further reading:

 

Illustration: Evolution of the median investment rate (in 2024, the median investment rate of BITD companies stands at 6.5%, compared to 2.1% outside the BITD) © Liasses fiscales, DG Trésor calculations