Antoine Arnault buys into Delage and its unkept Nürburgring promise
Delage's newest shareholder owns Paris FC, and its CEO's father ran Marseille
Antoine Arnault has bought a stake in Delage Automobiles through his investment company Marbeuf Capital, alongside François and François-Henri Pinault and Xavier Niel. Neither side has disclosed the amount. The eldest son of Bernard Arnault runs Christian Dior SE and led his family's takeover of Paris FC; Laurent Tapie, who revived Delage in 2019, is the son of the man who took Olympique de Marseille to the 1993 European Cup.
Antoine Arnault joins the Pinaults and Xavier Niel on a roster Delage values in tens of billions
Delage's website puts the combined net worth of its shareholders at several tens of billions of euros and says financing has never been an issue since the 2019 relaunch. The published roster includes the Pinault father and son, whose Kering group is LVMH's closest rival, Xavier Niel, partner of Arnault's sister Delphine, a run of French entrepreneurs and two Dubai funds; Tapie keeps the majority. Arnault is listed as a collector of cars from the 1980s and 1990s. The two men know each other through football: Agache, the Arnault family holding, took 52.4 percent of Paris FC in November 2024 with Antoine fronting the deal, and Bernard Tapie ran Marseille from 1986 to 1994, winning the 1993 European Cup.
The D12 now quotes 1,000 hp from a 6.6-litre V12, down from 1,100 hp in 2020
The D12 shown as a concept in Los Angeles in December 2019 promised a 7.6-litre naturally aspirated V12 making 990 hp on its own and up to 1,100 hp with its electric motor in GT form. Delage's website today lists a 6.6-litre V12 rated at 850 hp, a 150 hp motor on the gearbox that also provides reverse, 1,000 hp in total and a 360 km/h top speed. The layout survived intact: a carbon monocoque, tandem seating with the driver on the centreline, a fighter-jet canopy instead of doors, and Speedster or open F1 conversions at €190,000 and €260,000 on top of the €2 million base before tax. Jacques Villeneuve signs off the set-up of both versions, GT for the road and Club for the track.
The Nürburgring record was scheduled for 2020, then 2023, then spring 2025
The D12 was conceived around a single claim, the production-car lap record on the Nürburgring Nordschleife. Delage's original plan put the attempt in 2020. By late 2022 it had moved to 2023, after EU homologation. In October 2024 Tapie told the Paris show's organisers the run would happen in April or May 2025. Delage's website still says the car is designed to set a reference time in the road-homologated category; no lap time has ever been published. The record has belonged to the Mercedes-AMG One since 2022. Each time the date slips, the target gets faster and the D12's engine gets smaller.
Three D12s delivered and six firm orders, against 30 cars by the end of the decade
The first customer car left Magny-Cours in December 2025 for a collector near Atlanta, two years after Delage said deliveries would begin in early 2024. Two more followed in the first half of 2026, and in May the company put its firm order book at about six cars, figures it republished itself from a Côte d'Azur business weekly. Tony Parker has bought a pearl-white Speedster; shareholder Christian Boyer placed the first French order. Tapie says the 30 will be sold by the end of the decade, which means roughly five cars a year from now on. Delage is not alone: the first customer Koenigsegg Gemera arrived in June, six years after its reveal, the same lag. Jato Dynamics counted 321 hypercar sales outside the Middle East in 2024; three Delages in eighteen months is under one percent of that.
A €10 million raise funds Miami and Scottsdale clubs, a Chinese parts partner and a second model
Delage's money has come in slices: a €3 million round in September 2025, a €5 million tranche this spring from enthusiasts at a €1,000 minimum ticket, and a €5 to €10 million institutional phase run with Natixis Partners. Arnault's stake belongs to the latest of these. Tapie's uses for it are Delage-and-France themed clubs in Miami and Scottsdale, a Chinese joint-venture partner for some components, and the second model. That car, the Torpille 100A, was announced a year ago as a 1,500 hp carbon-and-flax hypercar aimed at 500 km/h, with a run about three times the D12's and an unveiling in 2026. This week Delage describes it as being in its first technical studies. Tapie's stated ambition is to be number two in hypercars behind Bugatti, which has just changed owners and builds 250 Tourbillons. Revived marques rarely get even this far: Spyker's latest comeback stopped short of building cars at all.
AutoNext Take
Delage does not have a money problem, and its shareholder page says so. Antoine Arnault's name proves the cheque-writers are not running out. What Delage has is a delivery problem, and no cheque fixes that. Seven years after the Los Angeles concept, the company has handed over three cars, removed a litre and 100 hp from the spec sheet, and moved its Nürburgring date three times. The 30-car run was meant to be a scarcity strategy; at the current pace it is simply the output.
Two dates will show whether this round changes anything. The Torpille 100A was promised as a 2026 unveiling and is now in early studies, so if it is not on a stand at the Paris show in October it has slipped a year. And the D12 Club has to post a Nordschleife time before the track's season ends in November, because a car sold since 2024 as a candidate for the fastest road car on track has spent two years without one. If neither happens, Arnault has bought into a very well-funded promise.
