French AI startup Mistral AI is in talks with investment fund MGX, among others, about a new round of financing worth roughly €1 billion in shares, supplemented by hundreds of millions of euros in debt financing from French lenders.
The funds are largely intended for the launch of Mistral Compute, a new AI cloud infrastructure that will be set up entirely in France, according to Bloomberg.
The plans will strengthen Mistral’s position in the European AI market. Founded in 2023, the company has already raised more than €1 billion. The company is actively collaborating with Nvidia and MGX to build Europe’s largest AI data center. This campus will form the technical backbone of a broader strategy to give France digital autonomy in a world where the US and China dominate AI innovation.
18,000 Grace Blackwell chips
The debt financing currently being negotiated by Mistral would be used to build Mistral Compute’s hardware base. According to the parties involved, the infrastructure will run on 18,000 of Nvidia’s latest Grace Blackwell chips. The French state investor Bpifrance, already a shareholder in Mistral, is mentioned as one of the potential lenders.
During VivaTech 2025, President Macron emphasized that the collaboration between Mistral, MGX, and Nvidia is crucial for France’s technological future. He called the initiative a decisive moment for the French AI industry.
Mistral CEO Arthur Mensch said that his company wants to move away from its image as a model builder and develop into a fully-fledged AI cloud player. According to him, rolling out its own platform not only offers more scalability, but also strategic control over the use of AI within Europe.
The startup has recently launched several products, including a programming assistant and a new generation of LLMs focused on reasoning. Commercial growth is accelerating, especially in Europe, although the company is also seeing momentum in the US.
Discussions about the new financing round are still ongoing and the exact valuation after the deal is not yet known. However, it is clear that Mistral is further scaling up its international ambitions.