The French AI company Mistral has disclosed that it has completed a €3 billion Series D funding round, with a post-money valuation exceeding €21 billion. The company stated that the funds will be used to expand computing power, build infrastructure, accelerate commercialization, and continue expanding into international markets.
Samsung led the new round of funding
This funding round was led by Samsung Electronics, with EQT’s Scaleup Europe Fund and existing shareholder PSG Equity participating as co-lead investors. Mistral stated that this is one of the largest equity financing rounds to date for a European tech company.
Existing investors a16z, NVIDIA, and Salesforce Ventures continued to participate, with new investors including Advent and BlackRock. Luxembourg has also joined as a new investor, maintaining the international composition of the shareholder base.
Funds allocated to computing power and regional deployment
The company stated that the funds will primarily be used to expand computing power, build AI infrastructure, drive commercial growth, and expand international operations. Mistral has recently strengthened its positioning as a "sovereign AI" company and aims to establish 1 gigawatt of computing capacity in Europe by 2030.
In August this year, Mistral also launched regional processing tools that allow customers to choose where their AI requests are processed. In addition to its proprietary models, the company has begun hosting third-party open-source weight models, including Chinese models.
The business targets government and enterprise clients.
Mistral’s market strategy differs from companies like OpenAI and Anthropic. It places greater emphasis on helping governments and enterprises retain greater control over AI usage, including model selection, deployment regions, and usage methods.
The company is currently operating in 20 countries. French President Macron stated on social media that this funding round reflects France and South Korea’s shared goal of establishing a “third way” in AI. As demand grows for local AI infrastructure worldwide, Mistral, as a non-U.S. AI company, is receiving increased attention.
Continues to maintain partnerships with U.S. technology companies.
Despite focusing on European sovereign AI, Mistral continues to collaborate with U.S. tech companies. Its strategic partnership with Microsoft was further expanded in July this year, and its latest funding round also received support from multiple U.S. investment firms.
From its shareholder structure and partnership network, Mistral has not taken a closed approach, but rather seeks balance among European capital, American capital, and Asian industry partners. This positioning also aligns more closely with its business focus on government and enterprise clients.
Additional information: Mistral has previously established partnerships and investment ties with Dutch chip equipment company ASML, indicating its simultaneous efforts to build out its chip and computing power supply chain.