ASML invests €1.3 billion in French AI Startup Mistral
Dutch semiconductor equipment manufacturer ASML has become a major shareholder in French artificial intelligence (AI) startup Mistral, investing €1.3 billion (CZK 31.6 billion) in the company. The investment gives ASML approximately an 11 percent stake in Mistral, valuing the AI firm at €11.7 billion.
The deal, announced Tuesday, includes a strategic partnership where ASML will leverage Mistral’s AI technology to enhance its chip production processes.
Mistral,founded in 2023,develops open language models and its chatbot,Le Chat,prioritizing user privacy. The latest funding round brings Mistral’s total investment to €1.7 billion, nearly doubling its valuation from €6 billion in mid-2024.
While a leading European AI company,Mistral remains smaller than US competitors like Anthropic,which recently received investment valuing it at $183 billion (CZK 3.8 trillion).
ASML, Europe’s second-most valuable technology company with a market capitalization of around €266 billion, has recently increased its connections to France, appointing former French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire to its Board of Directors. Christophe Fouquet has been ASML’s CEO as 2024,according to Reuters.
