Samsung Electronics is reportedly in talks to invest hundreds of millions of euros in Mistral, Europe's most valuable AI startup, as part of a round that could value the company at roughly 20 billion. People familiar with the matter told the Financial Times that Samsung, already an investor through its venture arm, could commit about 1 billion. Mistral is seeking to raise several billion euros in total, less than a year after a 12 billion valuation in a round led by ASML NASDAQ:ASML.
Samsung is the world's largest maker of memory chips, and AI developers are racing to lock in semiconductor supply as demand outstrips available compute. Micron NASDAQ:MU invested in Anthropic last month alongside a long-term memory and storage supply agreement. This week Mistral expanded its partnership with Microsoft NASDAQ:MSFT, which made a multibillion-dollar commitment to use Mistral's computing infrastructure, giving the French group revenue it can borrow against as it adds Nvidia NASDAQ:NVDA Vera Rubin chips.
Demand for non-US models is the other driver. After the Trump administration blocked foreign access to Anthropic's Mythos and Fable models last month, interest in sovereign AI capacity has risen, and Mistral has built its business on open models customers can control and no government can switch off.