Mistral AI: 3 billion euros raised, valuation above 21 billion

The company, founded in 2023, presents this fundraising as the largest capital operation ever carried out by a European technology company. Reuters now ranks Mistral as the second most highly valued private technology group in Europe.

The new funds are intended to finance cutting-edge research, the training of more powerful models, the expansion of infrastructure, and business growth. Mistral states that it operates in 20 countries and supports more than 125 major companies, including Airbus, ASML, and HSBC.

The fundraising comes as Europe seeks to strengthen its ability to develop and deploy artificial intelligence models without relying entirely on major American providers. Mistral is notably focusing on open-weight models and an approach that allows companies to retain greater control over their data, infrastructure, and production systems. This development occurs as Nvidia recently acquired the open-source platform Hugging Face for nearly 13 billion dollars.

Samsung Electronics is the lead investor in the funding round. Advent, funds and accounts managed by BlackRock, as well as the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, are also joining the shareholding, while several existing investors, including ASML, Nvidia, Bpifrance, and Salesforce Ventures, are participating in the operation.

Competition remains on a different scale, however, in terms of capital and computing power. Mistral therefore focuses a significant portion of its new resources on research, infrastructure, and professional markets where technological sovereignty and data control are key commercial arguments.

Chief Financial Officer Johan Bergqvist told Reuters that an initial public offering remains a long-term option, with no immediate plans. The stated priority is to convert this new financial capacity into products, computing power, and international growth.