Samsung eyes €1bn Mistral investment as French AI firm raises €3bn
A potential €1bn investment from Samsung would give Europe’s top AI challenger crucial hardware backing as it attempts to close the funding gap with US rivals.
Samsung is in discussions to invest up to €1bn in Mistral as the French artificial intelligence company pursues a €3bn funding round at a €20bn valuation. The talks are ongoing and terms could still change, according to people familiar with the matter. Neither company commented on the reports.
The potential deal pairs Europe’s most prominent AI challenger with one of the world’s largest memory chip manufacturers. Memory chips are critical components for training AI models, and global supplies are under severe strain from the rapid expansion of AI infrastructure. Securing backing from a hardware heavyweight would give Mistral a significant strategic advantage in accessing these scarce resources.
This approach mirrors a recent move by US rival Anthropic, which secured a strategic investment from American memory maker Micron in June. For Mistral, a Samsung deal would mitigate a major operational risk as it scales its foundational models to compete globally.
Samsung’s potential entry comes alongside European institutional support. Swedish investment firm EQT is in talks to lead or co-lead the Series D through the Scaleup Europe Fund. The European Union launched the €5bn fund last year specifically to address the continent’s chronic shortage of late-stage capital.
Despite this European mobilization, the sheer scale of the global AI arms race remains a daunting hurdle. Mistral has raised more than $3.5bn in debt and equity since launching in 2023, including a €1.7bn Series C led by Dutch semiconductor equipment maker ASML less than a year ago. However, its US competitors have recently closed rounds that dwarf European standards. Anthropic recently secured $65bn at a $965bn valuation, while OpenAI raised $122bn at an $852bn valuation.
For European investors and policymakers, Mistral’s fundraising is a critical test of the continent's tech strategy. The company was founded to provide a sovereign alternative to American and Chinese foundational model providers. Securing both Asian hardware backing and EU-funded capital suggests Mistral is finding a viable path to stay in the top tier of global AI developers.
