[Edaily Reporter Han Kwangbeom ] SamsungElectronics(005930)has significantly expanded its influence in the global AI ecosystem by leading a 3 billion euro (approximately 4.7 trillion won) Series D funding round for the French artificial intelligence (AI) startup Mistral AI. This investment by SamsungElectronics marks the largest equity investment in the history of European tech companies, and Mistral has achieved a valuation of over 21 billion euros (approximately 33 trillion won) just three years after its founding.

Mistral announced on the 8th that it has completed a 3 billion euro Series D funding round, with SamsungElectronics serving as the lead investor and the Scaleup Europe Fund—managed by EQT—and existing investor PSG Equity acting as co-leads. New investors in this round included BlackRock, Advent, and the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, while major existing shareholders such as NVIDIA, ASML, Andreessen Horowitz (a16z), and Salesforce Ventures also participated in significant follow-on investments.

Mistral stated, “This investment marks a significant milestone, as we have achieved the largest equity financing in the history of European tech companies just three years after our founding,” adding, “Led by SamsungElectronics, we have secured joint participation from the ScaleUp Europe Fund and PSG Equity, along with continued support from ASML, NVIDIA, and BNP Paribas CIB.” The company further emphasized, “The funds raised will be used to strengthen our infrastructure and product capabilities and to accelerate large-scale deployment; above all, they will serve as a driving force to continue and expand frontier research and AI model development.”

SamsungElectronics’ leadership in this major investment is drawing attention as a strategic convergence between the global cutting-edge manufacturing and technology ecosystem and AI models. Following ASML’s leadership in the previous Series C round, SamsungElectronics is now leading this Series D round, enabling Mistral to secure strong support from global giants at the forefront of advanced manufacturing, engineering, and industrial technology.

The funds raised will be invested in significantly expanding Mistral’s infrastructure, products, and frontier research—the foundation of its technological sovereignty. The company plans to increase compute capacity for powerful model training while expanding its infrastructure, thereby accelerating commercial growth and global market expansion. Mistral currently operates in 20 countries worldwide and provides mission-critical AI transformation infrastructure to more than 125 global corporations, including Airbus, ASML, and HSBC.

While the early stages of generative AI focused on “who could build the most powerful model,” companies and governments are now seeking ways to leverage AI for core business operations without losing control over their infrastructure and intelligence. This is because global demand is growing for solutions that simultaneously deliver performance, control, choice, and independence—all while addressing long-term technological dependence, data governance requirements, and deployment methods.

Mistral plans to address these market demands by building a “full-stack” solution that encompasses open-weight models, computational infrastructure, and a suite of practical applications. The company explains that this ensures customers are not tied to a specific vendor’s roadmap, pricing policies, or availability, and helps them build their own systems without exposing their data, workflows, or organizational knowledge to external parties.

Mistral emphasized that through this “Sovereign AI Layer” approach, it can grant enterprises control across four dimensions: data that remains within organizational boundaries; models that are controllable and customizable; private and predictable computing infrastructure; and fully controllable and auditable operating systems. Industry observers view this investment, led by SamsungElectronics, as reflecting global investors’ expectations that Mistral’s solutions will play a key role in enabling organizations to implement cutting-edge AI while maintaining technological sovereignty.

Mistral stated, “By building a full stack—ranging from OpenWeight models and infrastructure to computing capacity and the product suite that applies these to actual production—we ensure that customers are never locked into a single vendor’s roadmap, pricing, or availability.” The company added, “We will provide a layer of technological sovereignty that enables enterprises and governments to maintain control over their most valuable data and workflows without exposing them to external parties.”