Samsung Weighs €1bn Investment in Mistral in a Funding Round with Potential €20bn Valuation

Samsung Electronics is in talks to invest as much as €1 billion (about $1.14 billion) in French artificial intelligence startup Mistral AI, joining a new funding round that could value the company at around €20 billion ($22.8 billion), according to a report by the Financial Times.

Citing people familiar with the matter, the newspaper said the South Korean technology giant is considering an investment worth roughly €1 billion, while Swedish private equity firm EQT, through its Scaleup Europe Fund, is also in discussions to participate in the fundraising.

If completed, the deal would rank among Samsung's largest investments in artificial intelligence and reinforce the company's ambitions to deepen its presence across the rapidly expanding AI ecosystem, extending beyond semiconductors into foundation models, enterprise AI software and cloud infrastructure.

Neither Samsung nor Mistral immediately confirmed the report.

The reported investment comes as Samsung accelerates efforts to strengthen its AI portfolio amid intensifying competition from rivals including Nvidia, Microsoft, Alphabet, Amazon and Meta.

Earlier this year, Samsung said it would pursue investments and acquisitions where necessary to accelerate commercialization in emerging technologies, particularly robotics and artificial intelligence, while also expanding partnerships with technology companies. An investment in Mistral would complement Samsung's broader AI plan, which spans memory chips, AI-enabled smartphones, consumer electronics, cloud infrastructure and next-generation computing platforms.

The move could also create opportunities for Samsung to integrate Mistral's large language models into future Galaxy smartphones, AI-powered home appliances and enterprise solutions, while potentially strengthening demand for the company's advanced memory chips that power AI systems.

The fundraising discussions come just days after Microsoft announced a multibillion-dollar agreement with Mistral to expand the startup's AI computing infrastructure across Europe. The partnership will provide Mistral with significantly greater computing capacity while making its models more widely available through Microsoft's cloud ecosystem, enabling enterprises and developers to deploy the French company's AI technology more easily.

The twin developments show that Mistral is emerging as Europe's leading AI startup and one of the few companies viewed as capable of challenging the dominance of American AI developers.

Founded in 2023 by former researchers from Google DeepMind and Meta, Mistral has rapidly become the flagship of Europe's efforts to develop homegrown frontier AI models. The company has positioned itself as a European alternative to OpenAI, Anthropic and Google, emphasizing open-weight models, greater transparency and technological independence.

Its technology is already used by the French military and government agencies, reflecting Europe's growing emphasis on strategic digital autonomy.

The reported Samsung investment supports broader efforts by Europe to stand alone in AI development. European policymakers have increasingly sought to reduce dependence on U.S.-based AI providers amid concerns over data sovereignty, national security and long-term control of critical digital infrastructure.

Those concerns intensified after the United States last month suspended foreign access to two advanced AI models developed by Anthropic, highlighting the risks associated with relying on overseas AI platforms for critical government and commercial applications.

The decision bolstered calls across Europe to build independent AI capabilities that are less vulnerable to export restrictions or shifts in U.S. policy.

Although Mistral remains significantly smaller than leading American AI companies, its rapid rise has attracted substantial investor interest. But its projected €20 billion valuation remains well below the valuations of major U.S. AI firms such as Anthropic, OpenAI and xAI, which have attracted funding at valuations running into hundreds of billions of dollars. Nevertheless, the fundraising would further cement Mistral's position as Europe's most valuable AI startup and one of the continent's most strategically important technology companies.

For Samsung, backing Mistral would also strengthen relationships with one of Europe's fastest-growing AI developers at a time when demand for AI infrastructure continues to surge. As one of the world's largest producers of high-bandwidth memory (HBM), DRAM and advanced semiconductor components, Samsung stands to benefit from the rapid expansion of AI data centers and model training, regardless of whether demand comes from U.S. or European AI developers.