French AI firm Mistral has raised €3 billion in its latest funding round, pushing its valuation above €21 billion.
The deal marks the largest equity funding round ever raised by a European technology company, thanks to investment from Samsung Electronics, alongside Scaleup Europe Fund, managed by EQT, and existing investor PSG Equity.
A number of Mistral’s existing investors also joined the round, including a16z, ASML, Bpifrance, General Catalyst, Index Ventures, Lightspeed, Nvidia and Salesforce Ventures.
The latest Series D round brings together investors from Europe, Asia and North America. New investors include Advent, funds and accounts managed by BlackRock and the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg.
The AI company, which was founded three years ago, said the new funding will help it expand its AI research, increase computing capacity and expand its infrastructure, whilst also using the funds grow its business and expand further into international markets.
Mistral now operates in 20 countries and works with more than 125 major companies on AI projects. Its customers include Airbus, ASML and HSBC.
In a statement, the company said: “During the first wave of generative AI, the central question was who could build the most powerful model.
“Organisations and governments are now asking a different one: how to harness the power of AI for their mission-critical needs without surrendering control over the infrastructure and intelligence loop.
“Demand for that combination of performance with control, choice and independence is growing internationally, as enterprises and governments weigh the long-term technology dependencies, data governance requirements and deployment choices that come with any AI investment.”
The funding follows Mistral’s Series C round, which was led by ASML.
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