The French AI startup Mistral has completed a new funding round of €3 billion, approximately $3.5 billion, bringing its latest valuation to over €21 billion, or about $24 billion. As competition in Europe’s local AI sector intensifies, the company is accelerating its expansion of computing power and model capabilities to narrow the gap with OpenAI, Anthropic, and Chinese developers.
The company's valuation continued to rise over three years.
This round is a Series D financing led by Samsung Electronics. The EU-backed Scaleup Europe Fund, funds managed by EQT, and existing shareholder PSG Equity also participated in the investment. Mistral stated that this is the largest equity financing ever completed by a European tech company.
This valuation represents a significant increase compared to the €11.7 billion valuation following the previous funding round in September 2025, when semiconductor equipment company ASML invested €1.3 billion and became a major shareholder.
Funds will be allocated to self-owned computing power.
Mistral said the new funding will primarily be used to expand its computing infrastructure, train more powerful AI models, and drive international business growth. CEO Arthur Mensch told CNBC that Mistral ultimately aims to rely more on its own computing power rather than primarily depending on third-party infrastructure.
This direction has already begun to take shape. Earlier this year, Mistral announced an investment of €1.2 billion in Sweden to build a data center—its first major infrastructure expansion outside France—with the facility expected to be operational by 2027.
According to the company’s plan, Mistral also aims to build up to 1 gigawatt of European-based AI computing power by 2030.
Key service enterprises and regulated industries
Unlike chatbots primarily focused on consumer-facing applications, Mistral places greater emphasis on enterprise business. The company aims to help clients build customized AI systems and models based on their own data, infrastructure, and operational needs.
This approach is more appealing to government agencies and highly regulated industries, as these customers typically place greater emphasis on data storage locations and control over model deployment. Mistral states that the company is currently operating in 20 countries and serving over 125 large enterprise clients, including Airbus, ASML, and HSBC.
Annual recurring revenue target remains unchanged
On the commercial side, Arthur Mensch previously stated that the company is on track to achieve over $1 billion in annual recurring revenue by 2026. Reuters reported on Tuesday that Mistral still expects to reach this target by the end of this year.
However, Mistral still faces intense competition. In addition to major U.S. AI companies, Chinese open-source model developers are also advancing rapidly. This major funding round led by Samsung provides the three-year-old French company with greater financial resources to continue closing the gap with industry leaders.