Mistral AI raises $830M to build data center near Paris

The French lab Mistral AI has raised $830 million in debt to establish a new data center near Paris, which will be powered by Nvidia chips. This news has been confirmed by reports from Reuters and CNBC. Mistral first announced its plans to build a data center last year when its CEO, Arthur Mensch, stated that the company would explore various financing options in February 2025.

The construction of the data center in Bruyères-le-Châtel is expected to be completed and operational by the second quarter of 2026. Mistral has not yet responded to requests for confirmation. Last month, the company also announced plans to invest $1.4 billion in Sweden to develop AI infrastructure, including data centers.

Mistral aims to deploy 200 megawatts of computing capacity across Europe by 2027. Arthur Mensch emphasized that scaling their infrastructure in Europe is critical to empower customers and ensure that AI innovation and autonomy remain at the heart of Europe.

The company will continue to invest in this area, given the surging and sustained demand from governments, enterprises, and research institutions seeking to build their own customized AI environments instead of relying on third-party cloud providers.

To date, Mistral has raised over €2.8 billion ($3.1 billion) in funding from investors including General Catalyst, ASML, a16z, Lightspeed, and DST Global, according to data from Crunchbase.