French AI startup Mistral AI is said to be in early discussions to raise approximately €3 billion, according to Bloomberg, which would value the company at around €20 billion. This marks a significant increase from its Series C round valuation of €11.7 billion in September 2025. The funding round comes as Mistral continues to expand its presence in Europe, positioning itself as a sovereign alternative to U.S. tech giants. The company has partnered with several European governments and major firms, including France’s army and Luxembourg’s government, and is building a data center near Paris. Mistral has taken a more open approach to AI development, offering some foundational large language models with open weights, allowing customization by users. It also provides closed models for specific use cases such as programming and optical character recognition. Despite its growing influence, Mistral has raised only about $4 billion to date, far less than its American counterparts like OpenAI and Anthropic, which have secured billions in funding. The company did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Mistral, founded in 2023, aims to make frontier AI accessible to all, contrasting with its U.S. rivals who have focused more on enterprise and closed ecosystems. The company’s open approach has allowed it to gain traction in a region increasingly wary of American tech dominance. With European countries moving away from U.S. tech firms, Mistral has positioned itself as a homegrown alternative, emphasizing data sovereignty and local control. Its recent partnerships with European governments and companies reflect this strategy. However, the company’s funding remains significantly lower than its American counterparts, which have raised over $186 billion and $161.25 billion respectively. This gap highlights the challenges Mistral faces in competing with the scale and revenue of U.S. AI labs.
Source: techcrunch
