French company AI Mistral disclosed that it has completed a €3 billion Series D financing round, with a post-investment valuation of over €21 billion. The company stated that this funds will be used to expand computing power, build infrastructure, accelerate commercialization, and continue to expand into overseas markets.
Samsung leads a new round of financing
This round of financing was led by Samsung Electronics, with Scaleup Europe Fund managed by EQT participating as co-lead investors alongside existing shareholder PSG Equity. Mistral stated that this is one of the largest equity financings for a European technology company to date.
Existing investors a16z, NVIDIA, and Salesforce Ventures continue to invest, with new investors including Advent and BlackRock. Luxembourg also joins as a new contributor, maintaining the internationalization of its shareholder structure.
Funding allocation for computing power and regional deployment
The company stated that this funds will be mainly used to expand computing power, build AI infrastructure, promote commercial growth, and expand international business. Mistral has been continuously strengthening its "sovereign AI" positioning in recent months and has set a goal to build 1 gigawatt of computing capacity in Europe by 2030.
In August this year, Mistral also launched a regional processing tool that allows customers to choose in which regions AI requests should be processed. In addition to its own developed models, the company has also begun to host third-party open-source weight models, including those from China.
Business targets government and corporate clients
The market strategy of Mistral is different from that of companies such as OpenAI and Anthropic. It places more emphasis on helping governments and enterprises to retain more control when using AI, including model selection, deployment areas, and usage methods.
The company is currently operating in 20 countries. French President Macron stated on social media that this round of financing reflects France and South Korea's desire to create a "third way" in the field of AI. As the demand for local AI infrastructure increases in various countries, Mistral, as a non-U.S. AI company, is also receiving more attention.
Still maintains cooperation with American technology companies
Despite focusing on European sovereignty AI, Mistral still maintains cooperation with American technology companies. The company's strategic partnership with Microsoft was further expanded in July of this year. Its latest round of financing also received support from several American investment institutions.
From the perspective of shareholder structure and cooperation network, Mistral has not pursued a closed approach; instead, it seeks a balance between European capital, American capital, and Asian industry partners. This layout is also more in line with its business direction, which targets government and large corporate clients.
Additional information:Mistral has previously established cooperative and investment relationships with the Dutch chip equipment company ASML, indicating that it is also making synchronized arrangements in the chip and computing power supply chain.
