Europe’s answer to OpenAI just got a $1.5 billion boost from chip giant ASML

French AI startup Mistral has secured a massive investment from Dutch chip company ASML.

Mistral, which is seen as Europe’s answer to OpenAI, received a 1.3 billion euros, or $1.5 billion, investment from ASML as part of a wider $2 billion funding round, the companies said Tuesday.

ASML, which has a market capitalization of $308 billion, has taken a roughly 11% stake in Mistral, making it the startup’s largest shareholder. The Dutch company sells specialized machinery essential for chip manufacturing,

The funding roughly doubles Mistral’s post-money valuation to nearly $13.8 billion, cementing its place as Europe’s most valuable AI startup.

Mistral’s funding is dwarfed by that of OpenAI, which has raised close to $60 billion in total.

Mistral has developed large language models that are open weights, meaning anyone can see or use information determining how the model works after it’s been trained — but not the full source code.

ASML’s president and CEO, Christophe Fouquet, said the company would use Mistral’s AI technology in its own supply chains and for R&D.

Arthur Mensch, the cofounder and CEO of Mistral, said it would help ASML “solve current and future engineering challenges through AI.”

Other investors in the Series C round included DST Global, Andreessen Horowitz, and Nvidia, which have all previously invested in Mistral.

Unlike Nvidia, which makes a large number of investments in startups, ASML is more selective. The Dutch company has invested in venture funds like the DeepTechXL fund, but its last public direct investment in a startup was Smart Photonics in 2023.

It’s also the latest example of a synergy between Mistral and one of its investors from the semiconductor world.

In June, Nvidia announced a partnership with Mistral to provide Nvidia chips for the startup’s homegrown AI infrastructure platform.

CEO Jensen Huang took to the stage with Mensch to talk up “AI sovereignty,” the idea of a country using its own AI infrastructure, such as hardware and data, within its own borders.

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