The Dutch company ASML Holdingmainly dedicated to the construction of machines used in chips manufacturing, He has decided to invest 1.3 billion euros in the French company of the Mistral AI. It is an unconventional step for the company, which will remain with 11% of the actions of the AI startup, the most important in Europe in the sector.
ASML thus becomes one of the main shareholder of Mistral AI, after its. Three founders and their employees. It is dedicated above all to the development of AI models, in addition to having a chatbot. The company’s investment is part of a Mistral financing round, with which he hopes to obtain 1.7 billion euros to raise its valuation to 11.7 billion euros, which would make it one of the private companies with the greatest valuation in the region.
Mistral ai is the only company dedicated to AI in Europe that has sufficient credibility to be able to face the American and Chinese artificial intelligence startups, and this investment gives it the support, not only economic, but also of prestige, of one of the main technological technological ones of the continent, whose equipment is essential for the manufacture of processors.
At present it is the only producing company of the state -of -the -art lithography equipment used by semiconductor companies from around the world to make advanced chips for all types of devices, from Apple iPhones to NVIDIA accelerators.
Despite this, the CEO of ASML, Christophe Fouquetstressed that its main objective with this investment is to integrate AI in your company. In addition to the investment, the involvement of ASML in the company when sitting its financial responsible, Roger Dasen, in its Board of Directors. It will facilitate the way to the Dutch to integrate generative services in its operations and machinery. Fouquet has also commented that Mistral technology will arrive at ASML to improve software performance and scanning technology of its machines.
In any case, it is an important step for both, since ASML has not invested so far in an AI company, and is not precisely known for being a large investment in third companies. So far he has only financed some startups in his area, such as Smart Photonics, and has participated in a Dutch technological background.
For Mistral, in addition to an important economic and prestige injection, the agreement gives a first -order impulse to advance in its sector, one of the most competitive of the current technological scene. It was founded in 2023, and since its inception it has been presented as an alternative to the great names of AI in Silicon Valley.
According to Arthur Mensch, CEO of Mistralthe support of a European company such as ASML is very relevant, and has indicated that the agreement with ASML will be based on the Mistral approach in certain sectors of the industry, as in the manufacturing.
Mistral AI has various agreements with large European companies, such as BNP Paribas or Stellantis NV, but has not achieved large customers in the US market, despite trying. Nor has he achieved the financial muscle with which his rivals from Silicon Valley, such as OpenAi or Anthropic, who have closed astronomical financing rounds (especially the first).
The company focuses mainly on the development of Open Source models, and usually speaks of the importance of using these models and how they can be customized for companies because they offer more flexibility than those that have proprietary licenses. In addition to ASML, several shareholders have already invested in previous rounds, such as Nvidia and US investors Andreessen Horowitz, General Catalyst and Global DST, have already participated in this financing round.
