Mistral AI raised 3 billion euros, about $3.5 billion, in a Series D round announced Sept. 8, according to Crunchbase News and TechCrunch. The round values the Paris company at 21 billion euros, roughly $24 billion.
Samsung Electronics led the round, with the EQT-managed Scaleup Europe Fund and existing investor PSG Equity co-leading, both outlets reported. Existing backers including a16z, Nvidia and Salesforce Ventures took part, alongside new investors Advent, BlackRock and the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, according to TechCrunch.
TechCrunch described the round as the largest equity fundraising ever completed by a European technology company. The valuation nearly doubles the 11.7 billion euros Mistral was worth after its previous round, Crunchbase News reported, and brings the company's total funding since its 2023 founding to about $7.5 billion.
Mistral said the new capital would "significantly expand" its frontier research and help it "expand infrastructure and accelerate" commercial growth and international expansion, according to Crunchbase News. The company now operates across 20 countries and counts more than 125 enterprise customers, including Airbus, ASML, BMW and HSBC.
A Korean chipmaker leading Europe's largest tech funding round says as much about where AI infrastructure money is coming from as it does about Mistral. For builders watching the foundation model market for signs of consolidation, Mistral just bought itself another year or two of runway to stay independent of the U.S. labs.