France's leading artificial intelligence startup, Mistral, has secured $830 million in new debt financing to purchase 13,800 NVIDIA (NVDA) chips for a large data center near Paris. The transaction is expected to be announced on Monday, marking Mistral's first debt financing round. This move highlights growing investor confidence in European AI companies as the region races to expand AI infrastructure to compete with the United States and China. These firms aim to challenge the dominance of U.S. tech giants like Microsoft (MSFT), Google (GOOGL), and Amazon (AMZN) in cloud computing and AI services. Mistral stated that the debt financing is supported by a syndicate of seven banks, including BNP Paribas, Crédit Agricole Corporate and Investment Bank, HSBC, and Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group. The data center in Bruyeres-le-Chatel is scheduled to begin operations in the second quarter of 2026. Mistral selected the site in February 2025 as the location for its first data center. Last month, the company also revealed plans to build a second data center in Sweden, targeting a total computing capacity of 200 megawatts across Europe by the end of 2027. The Paris-based startup provides AI models to the French armed forces and positions itself as a European alternative to leading U.S. AI firms, offering both models and infrastructure services to governments and enterprises seeking greater technological independence. Mistral CEO Arthur Mensch emphasized in a statement, "Expanding our infrastructure in Europe is essential to empower our customers and ensure that AI innovation and autonomy remain at the heart of Europe's development."
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