The French startup Mistral AI, founded just two years ago, has reached a new strategic milestone in its development: it announces, in partnership with Nvidia, the launch of Mistral Compute, a sovereign computing infrastructure dedicated to artificial intelligence. This partnership, unveiled at the VivaTech show, crystallizes European ambitions for technological sovereignty.
A complete AI infrastructure, from GPU to PaaS
With Mistral Compute, the startup aims to offer an integrated platform for companies wishing to develop their own AI applications, without relying on American or Chinese cloud giants. The solution will include all levels of AI infrastructure: bare metal servers, software orchestration, APIs, and fully managed PaaS products and environments.
The project is based on a strategic partnership with Nvidia, which will provide Mistral with some 18,000 Blackwell GPU processors, among the most powerful—and most expensive—on the market, to equip a future 40 MW data center located in Essonne. This power could reach 100 MW in the long term. The goal is clear: to offer cutting-edge computing capacity while ensuring European hosting that meets sovereignty and sustainability requirements.
A European response to geopolitical challenges
This project is set against a tense geopolitical backdrop. As recent statements from the Trump administration revive transatlantic tensions, Europe seems to realize the urgency of building an autonomous technological sector. The agreement between Mistral and Nvidia is seen by many observers as a first step towards credible European digital sovereignty.
"We don't just want to build AI models, but to provide our clients with the tools and environment necessary for them to develop their own, autonomously" said Arthur Mensch, CEO of Mistral AI.
A mega fundraising in preparation
But this ambition comes at a cost. According to the Financial Times, Mistral is preparing a new one-billion-dollar fundraising to finance this expansion. A crucial operation as the previous 600-million-euro round had already highlighted the dependence on non-European capital, with the participation of American funds (Andreessen Horowitz, Lightspeed, General Catalyst) and Israeli billionaire Yuri Milner.
This quest for financing underscores a paradox: Europe wants its technological autonomy but still struggles to self-finance it.
Major partners already engaged
Despite these challenges, Mistral can count on the support of strategic players. Among the first clients and partners of the project are BNP Paribas, Orange, SNCF, Thales, Kyutai, Veolia, Mirakl, Schneider Electric, SLB Group, and Black Forest Labs. These companies see in Mistral Compute an opportunity to deploy their AI applications while ensuring the sovereignty of their data and compliance with European regulations.
The launch of the infrastructure is planned for 2026, with a strong desire to make it a model in terms of reduced carbon impact, thanks to the use of decarbonized energy.