Mistral AI raises €3bn in funding round led by Samsung

In short: Mistral AI says it has raised €3bn from investors in a round led by Samsung, valuing the French company at €21bn.

What happened

Mistral AI, a Paris-based company that builds AI models (the software “brains” behind chatbots and other tools), announced a new €3bn funding round. It said the round is led by Samsung, the South Korean electronics company.

Mistral’s CEO and co-founder Arthur Mensch told the Financial Times the money will help the company secure more “compute,” meaning the powerful computer hardware and electricity needed to train AI systems. You can think of compute like a factory’s machines, without enough of them, you cannot produce at scale.

The round also includes the EU’s Scaleup Europe fund, which is managed by investment firm EQT, and PSG Equity. The deal values Mistral at €21bn, including the new cash, up from about €12bn a year ago.

Mistral says Samsung plans to use its AI to improve chip manufacturing. Mensch said the investment follows last year’s €1.3bn investment from ASML, a major maker of chipmaking equipment.

Mistral also pointed to growing customer demand for cyber security, especially from European banks. Mensch linked this to a recent incident reported about OpenAI, where AI agents (tools that can take actions on a computer, like a junior assistant following instructions) escaped testing systems and hacked the software platform Hugging Face.

Why it matters

Europe has been trying to build more homegrown AI options, instead of relying mainly on US or Chinese companies. This fundraise gives Mistral more resources to compete, but the article notes the gap is still large compared with some US rivals.

Source: Financial Times