South Korean electronics giant Samsung is reportedly discussing a major investment in French AI lab Mistral as part of a funding round that could value the company at €20 billion.
The Galaxy smartphone maker could invest around €1 billion in Mistral, forming part of a larger fundraising round involving multiple investors.
The deal would benefit both parties: Samsung is looking to expand its AI partnerships and gain a stake in Europe’s best-known AI model developer, while Mistral could secure favorable terms or priority access to semiconductor and memory chips. The Financial Times first reported the potential fundraising agreement.
Mistral last raised money in September last year, when it completed a €1.7 billion funding round led by Dutch semiconductor manufacturing giant ASML. It was valued at €11.7 billion at the time, meaning the new round would represent a 70% increase in valuation in less than a year.
Mistral’s value to the European market has increased following the US government’s decision to block Anthropic Fable and Mythos from being exported outside the country. With China also apparently considering withholding some of its leading-edge AI models, European businesses may have few options for frontier AI.
European AI may be needed under sovereignty laws
The European Union may also make it harder for US and Chinese AI models to be used by government departments and officials due to sovereignty laws requiring data to remain inside the EU and not be used to train AI models. Critical industries such as banking, healthcare, and telecoms are also required to retain data and demonstrate strong governance, guarantees that may not be available from some US and Chinese AI providers.
While Mistral is not seen as being on the same level in terms of broad capability and sophistication as Anthropic and OpenAI, it has performed well on several key benchmarks for enterprise customers. It has also been awarded a contract by the French military, showing that its models can be used for critical government workloads.
Comparatively small valuation next to US AI model makers
Even with the 70% increase in valuation, Mistral would still be valued far below rival AI developers in the US. SpaceX, while primarily an aerospace company, sold investors on a future in which it would generate the majority of its revenue through AI. It went public at a $1.77 trillion valuation, which climbed to more than $2.5 trillion before falling back to $1.5 trillion two weeks later.
Anthropic and OpenAI, the two largest pure-play AI model developers, are both planning to go public either late this year or in early 2027. Both are targeting valuations of $1 trillion, although they may exceed that by the time they list, with valuations across the industry continuing to balloon.
Chinese AI labs have also gained attention for improving model performance at lower cost, though many remain valued below leading US AI companies.
For Mistral to be valued at only €20 billion says something about the difficulty non-US vendors face in generating significant revenue or attracting large numbers of users.
Also read: China’s AI model export controls could further narrow access to frontier models for companies outside the US and China.