PARIS—Google Inc. Chief Executive Larry Page met with France’s premier late last month and quietly pressed home a message: Google has invested heavily in France and is willing to do more.

In a half-hour meeting in the gilded office of Prime Minister Manuel Valls, Mr. Page noted that Google has greatly expanded its Paris operation in recent years and set up a fund for French newspapers, and said he was “totally prepared to continue investing in France,” according to people familiar with the meeting. Mr. Valls responded that...