Samsung Electronics has made a major equity investment in Mistral AI, Europe’s leading artificial intelligence company, and agreed to jointly develop AI models specialized for semiconductor design and manufacturing. The investment is part of the €3 billion (approximately $3.5 billion) Series D round raised by Mistral AI, which Samsung Electronics led.

The two companies signed the strategic partnership at a business roundtable held immediately following the South Korea-France summit in Paris on the 8th (local time). Samsung Electronics Chairman Lee Jae-yong and Mistral AI CEO Arthur Mensch signed the agreement, with South Korean President Lee Jae-myung and French President Emmanuel Macron in attendance, underscoring the symbolic significance of technological cooperation between the two nations.

The core of this partnership extends beyond simple equity investment into manufacturing AI collaboration. Samsung Electronics plans to combine the design and production data accumulated by its semiconductor (DS) division with Mistral AI’s high-efficiency AI model technology to build “semiconductor-specialized AI” that enhances productivity and precision across semiconductor operations.

Specifically, Samsung Electronics will leverage Mistral AI’s large language model (LLM) “Mistral Large” and other AI solutions to develop proprietary AI models optimized for DS division data. These models will be deployed in phases for data analysis, defect prediction, and process optimization in semiconductor design and manufacturing. Samsung Electronics expects this to shorten semiconductor development timelines while simultaneously improving manufacturing efficiency and quality.

Notably, the AI models will be implemented in an on-premises configuration operating within Samsung Electronics’ internal infrastructure. This measure ensures that semiconductor-related data, classified as national core technology, can be securely utilized without being transferred externally. Samsung Electronics plans to expand this collaboration across the DS division—including memory, foundry, and logic—and ultimately build an AI-based semiconductor ecosystem connecting customers and partners.

Mistral AI’s Growth Trajectory

Mistral AI was founded in Paris in 2023 by researchers from Google DeepMind and Meta. The company has grown rapidly in the generative AI market dominated by U.S. Big Tech players like OpenAI and Anthropic, positioning itself with open-weight models. Open-weight refers to the practice of publicly releasing model weights—the core learning outputs of AI models—allowing enterprises and institutions to install them on their own servers and modify them as needed.

In this Series D round, Mistral AI received a valuation exceeding €21 billion (approximately $24.4 billion). This is nearly double the €11.7 billion (approximately $13.6 billion) valuation from its Series C round led by ASML a year ago. It represents the largest equity investment ever raised by a European private technology company.

The investor composition is also noteworthy. In this round led by Samsung Electronics, the Scale-Up Europe fund managed by Swedish investment firm EQT and existing investor PSG Equity participated as co-lead investors. New investors included BlackRock, Advent, and the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, while existing major shareholders such as Nvidia, ASML, Andreessen Horowitz (a16z), and Salesforce Ventures also participated in follow-on investments.

Sovereign AI Strategy and Semiconductor Manufacturing Convergence

The “sovereign AI” strategy lies at the heart of why Mistral AI was selected as Samsung Electronics’ partner. Sovereign AI is a concept where enterprises maintain direct control over their data, models, computing infrastructure, and operating environments. Unlike U.S. AI companies that operate models on their own servers in a closed manner, Mistral AI enables customers to run AI on their own infrastructure and customize it to their needs.

Semiconductor manufacturing sites generate massive volumes of sensitive information—yield rates, process recipes, equipment logs—that cannot be easily exported externally. As a single wafer passes through hundreds of process steps, countless variables including equipment, materials, temperature, and pressure determine yield, which directly translates to profitability. AI can analyze correlations between variables that are difficult for humans to discern in real time and detect anomalies before they escalate.

As semiconductor manufacturing processes shrink from 3 nanometers to 2 nanometers and below, manufacturing complexity continues to increase. This is why analysts suggest the battleground of global semiconductor competition is shifting beyond fine-pitch process technology itself to “who can embed manufacturing AI into their fabs first.”

A Mistral AI representative explained: “Mistral’s AI encompasses data that never leaves the organization, models that can be controlled and customized, computing infrastructure that can be operated in-house with predictability, and operating environments with complete control and auditability.”

From Semiconductor Equipment to Manufacturing Floors

Mistral AI’s integration with the semiconductor industry gained momentum last year when ASML led its Series C round. ASML invested €1.3 billion (approximately $1.5 billion) at that time, securing approximately 11% equity and signing a long-term strategic cooperation agreement. ASML has been applying Mistral AI’s models across its products, R&D, and operations to enhance semiconductor equipment performance and development efficiency.

Real-world applications are emerging. ASML has worked with Mistral AI to improve recipe quality and processing speed in optical proximity correction (OPC) processes, and completed initial customer validation of its first generative AI features in January this year. The company is also expanding AI applications to complex engineering tasks such as extreme ultraviolet (EUV) light source setting optimization and equipment diagnostics.

While Mistral AI is not a semiconductor-specialized AI company, its experience applying models in the actual semiconductor industry through its ASML collaboration is considered an attractive factor for Samsung Electronics. With this new partnership, Mistral AI’s semiconductor AI applications are expected to expand from equipment to actual manufacturing floors.

Memory Supply Opportunities and Samsung’s AI Ecosystem Expansion

The scope of collaboration between the two companies may extend beyond manufacturing AI to semiconductor supply. Mistral AI plans to use the newly secured funds for frontier model R&D, computing capacity expansion, and infrastructure investment. As AI models grow in scale, the need for large-scale semiconductor procurement inevitably increases.

Mistral AI is currently building data centers in France and Sweden, and is also collaborating with Humain, Saudi Arabia’s state-owned AI company, on AI infrastructure development. CEO Mensch stated that the investment will be used to expand infrastructure including proprietary data centers and provide computing capacity rental services. The company envisions roughly doubling its own computing capacity within five years.

For Samsung Electronics, applying Mistral AI to manufacturing floors while simultaneously securing potential customers for AI infrastructure semiconductors—including high-bandwidth memory (HBM), server DRAM, and solid-state drives (SSD)—represents a dual opportunity. However, specific memory supply contracts have not yet been confirmed.

Jun Young-hyun, head of Samsung Electronics’ DS division, said: “As the complexity of semiconductor design and manufacturing rapidly increases, AI capabilities that can securely and precisely utilize vast amounts of data are emerging as core competitive advantages. Together with Mistral AI, we will build AI models and platforms specialized for the semiconductor industry and establish new standards for AI-based semiconductor innovation.”

CEO Mensch said: “From semiconductors to software, AI is redefining the creation of advanced technology. We are pleased to collaborate with Samsung Electronics based on Mistral AI’s capabilities, and through this partnership we aim to contribute to advancements in semiconductor design, manufacturing, and the broader global AI value chain.”

A Third Axis Amid the U.S.-China Duopoly

This partnership is also being interpreted as a move by South Korea and Europe to seek a “third AI axis” amid a global AI competition increasingly defined by the U.S.-China duopoly. In an interview with this publication, CEO Mensch emphasized: “If South Korea and Europe form a strategic alliance, we can preserve AI technology sovereignty without being subordinated to either the United States or China.”

He stated: “The era of a unified free global market is over, and fragmentation is an unavoidable business reality. A structure where a single monopolistic AI provider dominates the entire world is unlikely to persist.” He added: “South Korea and Europe possess world-class advanced manufacturing companies in semiconductors, automobiles, chemicals, and robotics, along with strong pools of mathematics and engineering talent. If we consolidate our strength in the private economic sphere and build strategic alliances, we can amass capital at a scale that won’t be overwhelmed by the massive financial resources of the U.S. and China, and independently build large-scale frontier models and complex local inference systems.”

Samsung Electronics has recently been expanding its position within the AI ecosystem through successive partnerships with major global AI companies. In October last year, it signed a strategic partnership with OpenAI and joined the large-scale AI infrastructure project “Stargate” as a strategic partner. In May this year, it participated as a strategic infrastructure partner in Anthropic’s global fundraising, and Anthropic is reportedly exploring collaboration with Samsung Electronics’ foundry division for its own AI semiconductor production.

Mistral AI currently operates in 20 countries worldwide, serving more than 125 global enterprises including Airbus, BMW, and HSBC. The company is also preparing to enter the South Korean market, recently beginning recruitment for enterprise AI service personnel to be based in Seoul.