OpenAI rival Mistral valued at $24 billion as Samsung leads funding
French AI startup Mistral has raised $3.5 billion in a funding round led by Samsung, pushing its valuation to over $24 billion. The company plans to use the capital to build its own data centers and develop larger, faster AI models to compete with OpenAI and Anthropic.
Why it matters
This investment underscores the intense global competition in AI infrastructure and the strategic importance of European-based alternatives in the tech landscape.
Mistral on Tuesday said it raised 3 billion euros ($3.5 billion) in fresh funding led by memory chip giant Samsung, as the French startup looks to position itself as a European alternative to rivals like OpenAI and Anthropic.
The investment also involved the Scaleup Europe Fund, a European Union-backed investment fund managed by EQT, and existing investor PSG Equity. Mistral said the funding gives it a post-money valuation of more than 21 billion euros.
Mistral was valued at 11.7 billion euros a year ago , after a funding round led by Dutch chip equipment maker ASML .
Arthur Mensch, CEO of Mistral, told CNBC in an interview that the funding would go toward building more infrastructure, including its own data centers, and renting out computing capacity.
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