Samsung Weighs $1 Billion Investment in AI Firm Mistral

Samsung is in talks to invest around $1 billion in French artificial intelligence startup Mistral, the Financial Times reported Wednesday (July 22).

The investment could help fuel Mistral’s push to become a key alternative to AI companies in the United States, the report said.

Samsung is discussing an investment in Mistral as part of a larger funding round that could value the firm at about 20 billion euros (about $23 billion), according to the report. Samsung has already invested in Mistral through its venture arm and could invest around 1 billion euros (about $1.1 billion) in the new round.

Mistral wants to tap into increasing interest from European and Asian companies and governments in alternatives to the top U.S. AI models, the report said. The White House last month blocked foreign access to Anthropic’s latest Mythos and Fable models, leading to an interest in “sovereign AI” capacity.

On Tuesday (July 21), Mistral announced that it expanded its partnership with Microsoft to give organizations across Europe and other regulated markets access to frontier AI and the ability to keep control over their data, operations and critical workloads.

Meanwhile, the PYMNTS Intelligence report “From First Prompt to Daily Habit: The Data Behind Rising Gen AI Reliance” found that consumers are using generative AI for personal tasks. The report revealed that 69% of people who use generative AI for learning and self-improvement said they use it more now than when they first began.

Heavier use also extends to other task categories. The report showed that 66% of people use generative AI for writing and communication, and 63% use it for managing finances and banking, planning travel and activities, and managing health and wellness. Even for everyday planning, the lowest-cited category, 58% of consumers said they are using generative AI more now than when they began using it.

The findings point to a “self-reinforcing cycle” in which models improve, and users figure out better follow-up questions, how to add context and establish constraints, according to the report.

“Results improve, trust grows, and gen AI moves into more tasks and more consequential choices,” the report said. “Put simply, trust builds because the tool keeps doing more and doing it better.”

For all PYMNTS AI coverage, subscribe to the daily AI Newsletter.