Financial Times: Samsung in talks to invest in Mistral, valuation could reach €20 billion.

According to a report by the Financial Times, people familiar with the matter revealed that Samsung is in talks to participate in a new funding round for AI startup Mistral, which could value the French firm at around €20 billion. The move would help Mistral emerge as a key alternative to U.S. tech giants. One insider added that Samsung had previously backed the company via its venture capital arm, and may invest around €1 billion in this new round. The talks reflect a broader trend among AI developers to partner with semiconductor suppliers to address the industry’s gap where computing power demand far outstrips supply. Interest in alternatives to leading U.S. AI models has been rising among European and Asian businesses and governments, following the Trump administration’s ban last month on foreign users accessing Anthropic’s latest Mythos and Fable models. Since its founding, Mistral has focused on developing open-source AI models that allow customers to customize and control them, meaning no company or government can shut down these models.