Samsung Electronics is in discussions to invest up to €1 billion in French artificial intelligence startup Mistral, according to a report from the Financial Times. This potential investment is part of a fundraising round that would value Mistral at approximately €20 billion.
The South Korean technology company is considering an investment worth hundreds of millions of euros and could ultimately commit around €1 billion, the report stated. Swedish investment firm EQT’s Scaleup Europe Fund is also in talks to participate in this funding round.
This investment would deepen the relationship between Samsung and Mistral as both companies aim to gain strategic advantages in the AI sector. Mistral has positioned itself as a European alternative to U.S. AI giants amid increasing calls for technological independence across Europe. The startup supplies the French military and is known for its open-weight AI models.
The fundraising follows a June report from Bloomberg indicating that Mistral was in early discussions to raise about €3 billion at a €20 billion valuation, nearly double the €11.7 billion valuation from its Series C round in September 2025. Sifted reported that EQT was in talks to lead or co-lead the Series D round through its €5 billion Scaleup Europe Fund.
The news of Samsung’s discussions comes one day after Microsoft and Mistral announced an agreement under which Microsoft will invest billions in Mistral’s computing infrastructure in Europe while expanding the distribution of the startup’s technology.
Mistral has been aggressively building its infrastructure this year. In March, the company closed an $830 million debt financing round to establish Nvidia-powered data centers across Europe. Mistral aims to achieve 200 megawatts of computing capacity by the end of 2027, with a long-term budget of €4 billion for this initiative.
If completed, the funding round would raise Mistral’s total equity and debt financing to approximately €6.5 billion. However, its valuation remains significantly lower than U.S. competitors such as Anthropic and OpenAI, which have raised much more in funding. Discussions are ongoing, and terms are subject to change. Both Samsung and Mistral have declined to comment on the matter.
