Mistral AI, a French startup developing an alternative to OpenAI, has secured $830 million in debt financing from a seven-bank consortium. The funds will be used for a new data center project near Paris, supporting Europe’s efforts to build its own AI infrastructure and compete with the U.S. and China.
The data center will house 13,800 Nvidia GB300 AI chips and provide 44 megawatts of power – exceeding the capacity of traditional data centers. This investment aims to establish Mistral’s presence across the entire AI value chain and capitalize on the growing demand for sovereign digital infrastructure in Europe.
Mistral anticipates the data center will be operational in the second quarter of 2026, powering the training of advanced artificial intelligence models. The project represents a significant step towards European AI compute sovereignty.