According to the Financial Times, the South Korean electronics company Samsung could invest approximately one billion euros in Mistral Ai: founded in 2023 and based in Paris, it is the largest generative artificial intelligence company in Europe and is considered the only one that can at least aspire to compete with US companies.
BETWEEN ASML AND SAMSUNG
To date, the largest shareholder of Mistral Ai, with an 11 percent stake and an investment of 1.3 billion, is Asml, the Dutch company that manufactures machinery for microchip production and holds a global monopoly on extreme ultraviolet lithography systems.
Samsung could participate in a new funding round – possibly together with the European fund Scaleup Europe Fund, led by the Swedish group Eqt – which would raise Mistral Ai’s valuation to 20 billion euros.
MICROSOFT ALSO BETS ON MISTRAL AI
Last April, Samsung said it would consider investments and acquisitions useful to accelerate the development and commercialization of intelligent robots, also through collaborations with local companies. Microsoft – one of the American tech giants engaged in the race for artificial intelligence – has also shown interest in Mistral Ai, announcing a billion-dollar investment in the startup’s computing infrastructure in Europe and distributing its technologies through its own cloud computing systems.
WHAT MISTRAL AI DOES
Mistral Ai aims to offer an alternative to the main US language models such as OpenAi’s Gpt-5, Google’s Gemini, and Anthropic’s Claude: its best-known product is the chatbot Le Chat, but it has also developed the Magistral model, equipped with “reasoning” capabilities, and Codestral, specialized in code generation.
The startup is trying to ride the European Union’s intentions to become more independent from US technology and counts the French army among its clients. The problem is that Mistral Ai is very far from the valuations not only of the American Big Tech companies but also of its closest competitors in artificial intelligence: OpenAi, for example, is valued at 852 billion dollars and Anthropic at 965 billion.
OTHER EUROPEAN GENERATIVE ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE STARTUPS
Mistral Ai, as mentioned, is the largest generative artificial intelligence company in Europe. Another notable player is the British Synthesia, specialized in video generation with artificial intelligence, which has reached a valuation of 4 billion dollars.
In Germany, there is Aleph Alpha, which emphasizes concepts favored by European institutions such as “transparency,” “privacy,” and “data sovereignty”: however, last April it was acquired by the Canadian company Cohere.
In Italy, instead, the main generative artificial intelligence company is the Milan-based Domyn (formerly known as iGenius): it has a valuation exceeding 2 billion dollars and targets specific and highly regulated sectors such as finance, defense, and advanced manufacturing.
