Microsoft invests billions in European AI expansion of Mistral
Microsoft is investing billions of dollars in expanding the AI infrastructure of the French company Mistral AI in Europe. The partnership is intended both to increase Microsoft’s computing power in Europe and to speed up the roll-out of Mistral’s AI technology via Microsoft’s cloud and software platforms.
As part of the deal, Microsoft Azure customers will be able to develop software using Mistral’s data centres in France. This will give organisations, particularly in heavily regulated sectors, an alternative to AI infrastructure that is entirely under US control. At the same time, Mistral’s Medium 3.5 and OCR 4 AI models are being added to Microsoft Foundry and Copilot Studio. Companies using Azure Local can also run Mistral’s open AI models on their own infrastructure.
The partnership taps into the growing need for digital and technological independence in Europe. That desire became more urgent after the United States temporarily restricted foreign access to two advanced AI models from Anthropic last month. Microsoft president Brad Smith said combining European AI models with American software made it possible to deliver AI solutions with greater continuity and freedom of choice for European customers.
According to both companies, however, full independence from American technology remains difficult. Mistral’s AI infrastructure runs on chips from Nvidia, a US company that, like Microsoft, has already invested in the French AI start-up. Smith stressed that the new agreement does not include any additional equity stake for Microsoft in Mistral. Mistral chief executive Arthur Mensch (pictured) declined to comment on reports that the company is working on a new funding round of around €3 billion at a valuation of roughly €20 billion.
Mistral is seen as one of the most important European AI companies and focuses, among other things, on applications for industry, financial services and defence. The company aims to have 1 gigawatt of computing power for AI by 2030. According to Mensch, the agreement with Microsoft confirms that this strategy is achievable. The two companies are also working on a joint commercial approach to bring their AI services to a broader market.
Emerce
Subscribers 0
Fans 0
Followers 0
Followers