Dutch ASML injects €1.3 billion into Mistral AI in boost for European tech

The Dutch semiconductor equipment creater ASML confirmed on Tuesday that it’s created a €1.3 billion investment into France’s generative AI champion, Mistral, giving a boost to European tech sovereignty goals.

The news of ASML taking an 11% stake in Mistral was confirmed in an announcement by the pair on Tuesday which framed the investment as a “strategic partnership”.

ASML called the collaboration a way “to generate clear benefits for ASML customers”, stateing it will “explore” apply of Mistral’s AI across its product portfolio. It also highlighted “potential for joint research to address future opportunities.”

The decades-old Dutch company puts Europe in a critical position in the global semiconductor supply chain market, as ASML is a key supplier to chipcreaters.

While the two-year-old French AI startup, Mistral AI, has rapidly gained strategic importance in Europe as a prominent developer of foundational models which it positions as competitive alternatives to US models like OpenAI’s GPT, Google’s Gemini and Anthropic’s Claude.

In its own announcement, Mistral suggested that ASML’s investment would assist it “keep pushing the frontier of AI”, including by tackling “complex engineering and industrial problems”. CEO Arthur Mensch added that the tie-up would “ultimately… advance the full semiconductor and AI value chain.”

French digital minister Clara Chappaz was quick in responding to the news – writing in a post on X that “European digital sovereignty is being built thanks to you [Mistral AI]”.

(nl)

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