Samsung leads Mistral AI funding round and brings AI into semiconductor operations

Samsung Electronics is deepening its push into artificial intelligence by leading Mistral AI's latest funding round and planning to use the French company's technology across its semiconductor operations. The move gives Samsung a closer relationship with one of Europe's biggest AI companies while bringing advanced AI tools deeper into chip design and manufacturing. Mistral AI raised €3 billion in its Series D funding round at a valuation of more than €21 billion. Samsung Electronics led the round alongside the Scaleup Europe Fund, managed by EQT, and existing investor PSG Equity. Mistral said the funding is the largest equity fundraising round ever completed by a European technology company.  Samsung takes lead in Mistral AI Series D Samsung's investment is about more than simply taking an equity position in an AI startup. The company is also entering a strategic partnership with Mistral to develop and deploy AI technologies within its semiconductor business. The partnership will focus on on premises AI systems that can operate within Samsung's own infrastructure. That is particularly important for semiconductor operations, where chip designs, manufacturing data and engineering processes can involve highly sensitive information. For Mistral, the Samsung deal provides a major industrial partner at a time when the company is trying to compete with much larger U.S. AI firms such as OpenAI and Anthropic. The fresh funding will support AI research, computing capacity, infrastructure, products and international expansion. Mistral AI technology moves into Samsung semiconductors Samsung plans to use Mistral's AI technology across areas including semiconductor design, manufacturing process optimisation and engineering workflows. The goal is to make AI a more direct part of how Samsung develops and produces chips. This could become increasingly important as semiconductor companies deal with growing demand for advanced chips and the complexity of AI related hardware. Using AI internally could help Samsung analyse manufacturing processes, improve engineering work and speed up parts of the chip development cycle. The partnership also fits with Mistral's focus on sovereign and open weight AI. Instead of requiring sensitive business data to be sent to external systems, companies can deploy models within their own environments. That makes the technology particularly relevant to industries such as semiconductors and advanced manufacturing. Samsung and Mistral target the AI semiconductor race The investment gives Samsung a strategic connection to Europe's rapidly growing AI ecosystem. Mistral has already become one of Europe's most valuable private technology companies, with its valuation nearly doubling from €11.7 billion after its previous funding round in 2025. For Samsung, the partnership could also strengthen the link between its AI ambitions and semiconductor business. AI models require enormous amounts of computing power and increasingly advanced chips, creating a direct connection between AI development and the semiconductor industry. Mistral, meanwhile, gains a major technology partner as it expands its computing infrastructure and develops larger AI models. The latest funding shows that the competition around AI is no longer limited to software companies. Semiconductor manufacturers, industrial groups and governments are increasingly becoming part of the race to control the technology and infrastructure behind the next generation of AI.