Samsung eyes €1B stake in French AI startup Mistral

Samsung is in advanced discussions to invest up to one billion euros in Mistral, the French AI startup, according to the Financial Times. The deal would value Mistral at around 20 billion euros, a significant jump from its 12 billion euro valuation less than a year ago. Swedish investor EQT is also reportedly participating in the new funding round.

Samsung has already backed Mistral through its venture arm in 2024 and is now doubling down on that bet. The South Korean company is simultaneously pursuing other AI-infrastructure plays: it is in talks with Anthropic, a leading AI safety and research company, about manufacturing a custom AI chip. These moves underscore Samsung's strategy to establish itself not just as a chip maker but as a key player across the entire AI supply chain—from semiconductor manufacturing to model partnerships.

Mistral's trajectory is accelerating. CEO Arthur Mensch stated in a February interview that the company expects annual revenue to exceed one billion dollars by year-end. This week alone, Mistral expanded its partnership with Microsoft significantly: Microsoft is committing billions of dollars to Mistral's compute infrastructure and making Mistral's models available through Microsoft Azure, including air-gapped cloud environments that lack internet access for use in regulated sectors such as finance and healthcare. To meet this demand, Mistral is scaling up its GPU capacity with thousands of Nvidia Vera Rubin chips. Samsung's investment arrives at a moment when Mistral is rapidly transitioning from a model developer to a critical infrastructure provider in the AI ecosystem.

Samsung's push into Mistral reflects a deliberate strategy to secure footholds across multiple layers of AI infrastructure. The company is leveraging its existing strength as a memory chip manufacturer while simultaneously investing in AI model providers (Mistral) and exploring custom silicon partnerships (Anthropic). This multi-layered approach insulates Samsung from dependence on any single vendor and positions it to capture value from the growing demand for AI computing resources.

Mistral's valuation has climbed steeply—from 12 billion euros less than a year ago to an expected 20 billion euros in this round—signaling investor confidence in the French startup's ability to compete at the model level. The company is also benefiting from Microsoft's backing: Microsoft has committed to billions of dollars in spending on Mistral's compute infrastructure and is making Mistral's models available through Azure, including for air-gapped environments serving regulated industries. This partnership, combined with Samsung's investment and Arthur Mensch's forecast that Mistral will hit one billion dollars in annual revenue by year-end, suggests the startup is moving rapidly from a model provider to a significant player in AI infrastructure.

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