A French artificial intelligence (AI) startup called Mistral has raised 3 billion euros in a new funding round, raising its valuation to over 21 billion euros. This marks the company's fifth funding round and significantly increases its value from the previous 12 billion euros. Arthur Mensch, Mistral’s co-founder and CEO, stated that the company's valuation now stands at 21.3 billion euros. A major development in this round is the entry of South Korea's Samsung, which made the largest investment. Despite this, Mistral remains a European company, with half of the new funding coming from investors based in Europe. After this round, Europe accounts for two-thirds of Mistral's capital and three-quarters of the voting power on its board of directors. The new funds will be used to purchase advanced computer chips, build new data centers, and expand Mistral’s sales team to enter new markets, including India and the United States. Mistral aims to achieve 1 billion euros in revenue by the 2026 fiscal year, which would be slightly more than a quarter of what OpenAI, the creator of ChatGPT, is projected to make. However, this 3 billion euro raise is still considered insufficient given the high costs of AI development, which requires significant financial resources. Mistral’s CEO, Arthur Mensch, said the funding will allow the company to accelerate research, product development, and infrastructure, helping organizations deploy AI on a larger scale. The investment comes from Samsung, the European Commission's Scaleup Europe fund, and other investors like Dutch firm ASML and American company Nvidia. The founders still maintain control of the company, according to the CFO, Johan Bergqvist. Mistral’s 3 billion euro raise is the largest private equity round for a European tech company. The timing is notable, as some experts have criticized the startup for shifting focus from developing cutting-edge AI models to providing computing power for others' AI. Mistral’s valuation has nearly doubled in a year, from 11.7 billion euros to 21 billion. This single raise exceeds all previous funding combined since the company was founded in 2023. Two new investors, Samsung and the European Commission-backed Scale-up Europe fund, have joined Mistral’s capital. Samsung, a major supplier of memory chips, is investing in a company that heavily relies on these components. Mistral’s CEO wants to use the funds to build its own data centers and increase its computing power significantly in the next five years, aiming to reduce reliance on external providers. The company plans to host open-source AI models, including some from China, in its European data centers. Critics argue this approach may allow Europe to host foreign AI rather than develop its own. Despite this, Mistral maintains it is still committed to creating advanced AI models and using revenue from its data centers and major clients to fund research. The startup also retains control over more than half of its voting rights, avoiding the fate of Hugging Face, which was recently acquired by Nvidia. The debate over Mistral’s direction continues, with the French economy minister acknowledging the challenge while expressing pride in the company.