French artificial intelligence company Mistral AI has raised €3 billion in a Series D funding round, valuing the three-year-old company at more than €21 billion as it expands its push into sovereign and open-weight AI.
Samsung Electronics led the round, while the Scaleup Europe Fund, managed by EQT, and existing investor PSG Equity joined as co-leads. New investors included Advent International, funds and accounts managed by BlackRock and the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg.
Existing backers including Andreessen Horowitz, ASML, Bpifrance, General Catalyst, Index Ventures, Lightspeed, Nvidia and Salesforce Ventures also participated in the financing.
Mistral said the capital will be used to expand frontier AI research, increase computing capacity for training models and build out infrastructure. The Paris-based company also plans to accelerate its commercial growth and international presence.
The company described the Series D as the largest equity fundraising round completed by a European technology company. The financing also represents a significant increase from Mistral's previous valuation of €11.7 billion following its Series C round last year.
Founded in 2023 by Arthur Mensch, Guillaume Lample and Timothée Lacroix, Mistral has positioned itself as a European alternative to larger US-based AI companies. Its strategy combines AI models, computing infrastructure and enterprise products, with an emphasis on giving organisations greater control over how their AI systems and data are deployed.
Open-weight models form a key part of that approach. They allow organisations to run and customise models within their preferred infrastructure, an option that has become increasingly relevant for governments and enterprises seeking greater control over sensitive data, regulatory requirements and technology infrastructure.
Mistral now operates across 20 countries and says it supports more than 125 global enterprises with AI deployments. Its customers include Airbus, ASML and HSBC.
The funding arrives as sovereign AI becomes an increasingly important part of the global technology landscape. Governments and enterprises are examining how AI infrastructure, models and data can be developed or operated within specific jurisdictions instead of depending entirely on technology controlled by overseas providers.
For Mistral, the new capital provides additional resources to compete in a market where developing frontier models requires significant spending on computing infrastructure, research and talent.
The investment also brings Samsung closer to one of Europe's most prominent AI companies. Mistral said its next phase will focus on advancing its models and infrastructure while expanding internationally, as demand grows for AI systems that offer organisations greater control over deployment and data.
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