French AI startup Mistral AI has raised €1.7 billion in a Series C funding round, led by Dutch semiconductor giant ASML, bringing its valuation to about €11.7 billion.
ASML invested €1.3 billion, becoming Mistral’s largest shareholder with an 11% stake and a seat on the company’s strategic committee.
“ASML is proud to enter a strategic partnership with Mistral AI, and to be the lead investor in this funding round,” said CEO Christophe Fouquet. “The collaboration between Mistral AI and ASML aims to generate clear benefits for ASML customers through innovative products and solutions enabled by AI, and will offer potential for joint research to address future opportunities.”
The round also saw participation from major investors, including Andreessen Horowitz, DST Global, Bpifrance, General Catalyst, Index Ventures, Lightspeed Venture Partners and NVIDIA.
The deal cements Mistral AI’s position as Europe’s most valuable AI company, strengthening the region’s bid for technological sovereignty and providing a counterweight to US giants such as OpenAI and Anthropic.
Mistral AI said the investment will support scientific research and the development of decentralised frontier AI solutions aimed at addressing complex engineering and industrial problems.
“This investment brings together two technology leaders operating in the same value chain,” Arthur Mensch, CEO of Mistral AI, said. “We have the ambition to help ASML and its numerous partners solve current and future engineering challenges through AI, and ultimately to advance the full semiconductor and AI value chain.”
Fouquet described the tie-up as a strategic move to enhance chipmaking tools with advanced AI capabilities, stressing that the focus is on technological collaboration rather than geopolitics.
Founded in 2023 by former Google DeepMind and Meta researchers, Mistral has quickly risen to the forefront of Europe’s AI ecosystem. The latest funding builds on its €600 million Series B round in 2024, signalling growing momentum in Europe’s push to compete globally in artificial intelligence.
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