Mistral Raises W4.7 Trillion in Samsung-Led Funding, Largest in European IT History

French artificial intelligence (AI) startup Mistral announced on the 8th (local time) that it has secured 3 billion euros, approximately 4.7 trillion won, in a new funding round led by Samsung Electronics.

AFP and the Financial Times reported that the funding round was led by Samsung Electronics, with participation from the EU Scale-Up Europe Fund managed by private equity firm EQT, as well as PSG Equity.

The 3 billion euros is the largest amount ever raised by a European tech company.

Consequently, Mistral's valuation has surpassed 21 billion euros, or about 32.8 trillion won, nearly doubling from 120 billion euros a year ago.

Founded in 2023, the startup Mistral has been considered Europe's rival in the global tech market dominated by US and Chinese companies.

However, it remains much smaller in scale compared to OpenAI, which is valued at 850 billion dollars (approx. 1,143 trillion won), or Anthropic, which is eyeing an initial public offering (IPO) at a valuation of 2 trillion dollars (approx. 2,689 trillion won).

Mistral stated that with this funding, it will accelerate research and development (R&D) and pursue global expansion.

The company also announced plans to solidify its niche by providing models that businesses can operate directly using their own data.

Co-founder and CEO Arthur Mensch said in a statement, "This funding round allows us to move even faster into R&D, products, and infrastructure, and to continue delivering the ability for businesses and institutions to operate AI on their own terms and at their own scale."

Mensch also explained, "Institutions want to industrialize AI within systems that are already complex, with their own data, their own tools, and their own compliance constraints."

So far this year, Mistral has been increasing its infrastructure spending, including its first data center to be built in France.

In July, it signed an agreement with Microsoft (MS) to provide AI computing power and to offer Mistral models to MS customers.

Chief Financial Officer Johan Bergqvist told AFP regarding the funding round, "We have proven that we can build alternative models that are more cost-effective than our competitors, and our capital needs are not as large as some of our competitors."

He added that while expanding its presence across Europe, the company is also seeing increasing demand in the Middle East, Asia, and North America.
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.