Mistral AI raises 3 billion euros in Europe's largest-ever tech funding round despite lagging behind rivals
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Mistral AI has closed a €3 billion Series D round, pushing its valuation past €21 billion and marking the largest equity funding round ever raised by a European tech company, according to Mistral. Samsung leads the round, with the Scaleup Europe Fund (managed by EQT) and PSG Equity as co-leads; new investors include Advent, funds managed by BlackRock, and the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, while existing backers like a16z, Nvidia, ASML, and General Catalyst also participated. The valuation has roughly doubled from about €12 billion when ASML invested €1.3 billion in September 2025, and in March the company took out an $830 million loan for its own data centers. Despite this financial milestone, Mistral's models lag behind competitors: Mistral Medium 3.5 trails Chinese open models like Qwen and Kimi and does not compete with closed US models. The company instead focuses on enterprise clients, operating in 20 countries and serving more than 125 companies, including Airbus, ASML, and HSBC. Since early 2026, Mistral has benefited heavily from European customers looking to reduce their reliance on US providers.
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