Samsung in talks to invest in Mistral

Samsung Electronics is in advanced talks to invest up to €1 billion in French AI startup Mistral as part of a fundraising round that could value the company at roughly €20 billion, according to the Financial Times. The round is expected to raise several billion euros, with Swedish investor EQT's Scaleup Europe Fund also in talks to participate, alongside Novo Holdings and Santander. This follows a multibillion-dollar commitment from Microsoft to use Mistral's computing infrastructure, announced earlier this week. Mistral, Europe's most valuable AI startup, has positioned itself as a European alternative to US AI giants, especially after the US blocked foreign access to Anthropic's latest models. The company supplies the French military and focuses on open AI models. Samsung Electronics's potential investment reflects its strategy to secure partnerships in AI and memory chips, as the industry faces a chip crunch. Mistral's valuation has grown from €12 billion less than a year ago, driven by demand for sovereign AI capacity in Europe.