Samsung discusses €1bn Mistral stake as AI funding race widens

Samsung is discussing an investment of about €1 billion, or roughly $1.1 billion, in French artificial intelligence company Mistral, the Financial Times reported Wednesday. The talks are part of a larger fundraising that could value Mistral at about €20 billion, or around $23 billion, according to the newspaper.

The possible investment would add a major Asian technology group to Mistral’s backers at a time when governments and companies in Europe and Asia are seeking more AI capacity outside the dominant U.S. model providers. The Financial Times reported that Samsung has already invested in Mistral through its venture arm.

A funding round at a stated valuation sets the price at which investors buy equity in a company. For a fast-growing AI developer, that capital can support model training, product development and commercial expansion, all of which require large outlays for talent, computing infrastructure and enterprise sales.

Mistral courts demand beyond U.S. AI providers

Mistral is seeking to capture rising demand from European and Asian companies and public-sector buyers for alternatives to leading U.S. AI systems, according to the Financial Times report. The interest has been sharpened by policy concerns over access to advanced models and control over sensitive data.

PYMNTS reported that the White House last month blocked foreign access to Anthropic’s newest Mythos and Fable models. That decision helped increase attention on so-called sovereign AI capacity, a term used to describe systems that give countries or institutions greater control over the models, data handling and infrastructure on which they rely.

Mistral also announced Tuesday that it had broadened its partnership with Microsoft. The company said the expanded arrangement would give organizations in Europe and other regulated markets access to frontier AI while allowing them to retain control over data, operations and critical workloads.

The Microsoft tie-up and Samsung talks point to the same commercial pressure: large customers want access to advanced AI tools, but many also face regulatory, security or strategic constraints on where data is processed and which providers control core technology. Mistral is positioning itself within that demand, according to the Financial Times report.

Consumer usage continues to broaden

The investor interest comes as generative AI use spreads into more routine consumer activities. A PYMNTS Intelligence report, “From First Prompt to Daily Habit: The Data Behind Rising Gen AI Reliance,” found that 69% of people using generative AI for learning and self-improvement said they use it more than when they started.

The report found rising usage across other categories as well. PYMNTS Intelligence said 66% of users reported greater use for writing and communication, while 63% said the same for managing finances and banking, planning travel and activities, and handling health and wellness tasks. For everyday planning, the lowest-ranked category cited, 58% of consumers said their use had increased since they began.

PYMNTS Intelligence described the pattern as a “self-reinforcing cycle,” in which models improve and users become better at asking follow-up questions, supplying context and setting limits. The report said that as results improve, trust rises and generative AI enters more tasks and higher-stakes decisions.

This story draws on original reporting from PYMNTS.