Samsung Electronics is in advanced talks to invest up to €1 billion in the French AI startup Mistral AI, according to the Financial Times. The deal would value the company at €20 billion.
The South Korean tech giant Samsung Electronics is negotiating an investment of up to €1 billion in Mistral AI, the French artificial intelligence startup. This was reported by the Financial Times, which places the company's valuation at €20 billion, nearly double the €12 billion it reached in its previous round led by ASML.
The operation is part of a Series D round of approximately €3 billion that Mistral is closing in July 2026. In addition to Samsung, the EQT Scaleup Europe Fund is also in talks to participate, according to sources close to the negotiation.
Mistral AI, founded in 2023 by former employees of DeepMind and Meta, has become one of the European benchmarks in artificial intelligence. Its proposal for 'sovereign AI' — models developed and hosted under European control — has garnered support from governments and large corporations seeking alternatives to American and Chinese giants.
Samsung's investment, which is not yet finalised, responds to a strategy that goes beyond financial performance. The semiconductor manufacturer aims to secure future demand for its high bandwidth memory (HBM) chips, essential for training and executing AI models. It also wants to integrate artificial intelligence into its own value chain, from consumer devices to data centres.
For AI startup founders in Spain and Latin America, the news sends a clear signal: access to strategic capital and infrastructure may be more decisive than having the most powerful model on the market. Mistral does not lead the benchmarks against OpenAI, Anthropic, or DeepSeek, but its narrative of sovereignty and its alliances with industrial giants allow it to raise multi-million euro rounds.
The relationship between artificial intelligence and semiconductors is becoming increasingly symbiotic. AI models require massive volumes of memory and computing, and the bottleneck is not only the quality of the model but also access to infrastructure. By investing in Mistral, Samsung captures future demand and positions itself as a strategic partner, not just as a supplier.
Microsoft has also made multi-billion commitments to expand European data centres related to Mistral, reinforcing the regional infrastructure dimension. This alliance combines Microsoft's industrial capacity with Mistral's strategic autonomy.
For AI startups in Spain, the operation underscores the importance of building alliances with large industrial corporations. It is not just about raising capital but also securing access to critical infrastructure and distribution channels. Sovereign AI, moreover, opens a window of opportunity for companies that want to offer solutions under European control.
Discussions between Samsung and Mistral are advanced, but no definitive closure has been confirmed. Due diligence, regulatory conditions, and final negotiations may extend for weeks or months, according to sources familiar with the process. Until there is an official statement from Mistral or Samsung, the terms may change.
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