[Edaily Reporter Han Kwangbeom ] SamsungElectronics(005930)Samsung Electronics has led a 3 billion euro (approximately 4.7 trillion won) Series D funding round for the French artificial intelligence (AI) company Mistral AI and signed a long-term technology partnership. Through this, the company has significantly expanded its influence in the global AI ecosystem.
SamsungElectronics announced on the 9th that it has entered into a strategic partnership with Mistral AI to jointly develop “semiconductor-specific AI” that enhances productivity and precision across all semiconductor operations by combining the technology and manufacturing data from its DS (Semiconductor) division with Mistral AI’s highly efficient AI model technology. SamsungElectronics plans to use this partnership as an opportunity to accelerate the AI transformation across all business divisions, including semiconductors, and strengthen its competitiveness in the global AI semiconductor market.
The signing of this partnership took place unexpectedly, timed to coincide with the South Korea-France summit. Previously, Mistral AI had officially announced a 3 billion euro investment round led by SamsungElectronics, with EQT’s Scale-Up Europe Fund and PSG Equity participating 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 reinvestments.
SamsungElectronics’ investment marks the largest equity investment in the history of European tech companies, and Mistral AI has achieved a valuation of over 21 billion euros (approximately 33 trillion won) just three years after its founding. Mistral AI stated, “This investment is a significant milestone achieved under SamsungElectronics’ leadership,” adding, “The funds raised will be used to strengthen our infrastructure and product capabilities and accelerate large-scale deployment; above all, they will serve as a driving force to continue and expand our frontier research and AI model development.”
◇Mistral: Europe’s Leader in “Sovereign AI”… Unparalleled Influence in Technological Sovereignty and the Ecosystem
Mistral AI, a leading player in the European AI ecosystem, was founded by AI researchers from Google DeepMind and Meta, led by CEO Arthur Mensch. Mistral AI possesses unique technological capabilities that enable the construction of customized AI models in on-premises environments for industries requiring a high level of data security, such as finance, manufacturing, and energy.
Mistral AI aims to provide a “sovereign AI layer” that allows customers to protect their proprietary data and workflows without being locked into a single vendor by building a “full-stack” solution that spans everything from OpenWeight models to computational infrastructure and practical application suites.
SamsungElectronics plans to build its own AI models optimized for the DS Division’s proprietary data by utilizing AI solutions from Mistral AI, including “Mistral Large,” a high-efficiency large language model (LLM). SamsungElectronics plans to apply these solutions in phases to semiconductor design, data analysis on the manufacturing floor, defect prediction, and process optimization to shorten development time and improve manufacturing efficiency and quality.
The two companies will jointly build not only AI models but also AI platforms and operational systems optimized for semiconductor operations. In particular, they plan to implement these AI models on-premises—meaning they will run on SamsungElectronics’ internal infrastructure—to ensure that semiconductor-related data, which constitutes a core national technology, can be utilized securely without being transferred externally.
◇Preventing Leakage of Core Technologies…Expanding into the Memory and Foundry Ecosystems
SamsungElectronics plans to expand this collaboration across its entire DS Division—including memory, foundry, and logic—and build an AI-based semiconductor ecosystem that can eventually connect with customers and partners. The two companies intend to combine SamsungElectronics’ semiconductor technology with Mistral AI’s competitive models to continuously identify AI use cases optimized for the semiconductor industry and expand the scope of their collaboration into the global market.
Jeon Young-hyun, Head of SamsungElectronics’ DS Division, stated, “As the complexity of semiconductor design and manufacturing rapidly increases, the ability to safely and precisely utilize vast amounts of data through AI is emerging as a key competitive advantage.” He added, “Together with Mistral AI, we will build AI models and platforms tailored to the semiconductor industry to set a new standard for AI-based semiconductor innovation.”
Artur Mensch, founder and CEO of Mistral AI, also remarked, “From semiconductors to software, AI is redefining the creation of cutting-edge technology.” He continued, “We are delighted to collaborate with SamsungElectronics based on Mistral AI’s capabilities, and through this partnership, we aim to contribute to advancements across semiconductor design, manufacturing, and the global AI ecosystem.”
