Samsung Electronics Teams Up with Mistral AI to Develop 'Semiconductor AI Model' with Major Equity Investment

Strategic Partnership and Major Investment Signed
on the Occasion of the Korea-France Summit

Samsung Electronics has joined forces with France's leading artificial intelligence (AI) company, Mistral AI, to jointly develop a proprietary AI model specialized in semiconductor design and manufacturing.

Samsung Electronics Chairman Jay Y. Lee and Mistral AI Chairman Arthur Mensch are conversing at the state luncheon hosted by President Jae-myung Lee for French President Emmanuel Macron's state visit on April 3 at the Blue House. Photo by Yonhap News Agency

On September 8 (local time), Samsung Electronics announced that it had entered into a strategic partnership with Mistral AI to coincide with the Korea-France summit. Along with this agreement, Samsung also made a significant equity investment in Mistral AI to promote long-term technology cooperation.

The two companies plan to combine the semiconductor technology and manufacturing data from Samsung Electronics’ Device Solutions (DS) division with Mistral AI’s highly efficient large language model (LLM) technology, “Mistral Large,” in order to build a “semiconductor-specialized AI” designed to enhance productivity and precision across all aspects of semiconductor work. The co-developed AI model will be applied in phases to areas such as data analysis, defect prediction, and process optimization at semiconductor design and production sites, with the goal of shortening development periods and improving manufacturing quality and efficiency.

In particular, to ensure the security of semiconductor-related data, which is a national core technology, the model will be built in an “on-premises” configuration that operates within Samsung Electronics’ internal infrastructure, rather than using an external cloud. This approach allows for the safe utilization of key data without the risk of external leakage.

Samsung Electronics plans to expand this collaboration across all DS division businesses, including memory, foundry, and logic, and aims to establish an AI-based semiconductor ecosystem that connects to customers and partners in the future.

To further solidify its strategic relationship with Mistral AI, Samsung Electronics also made a major equity investment. According to international media outlets such as AFP, Mistral AI raised a total of 3 billion euros (approximately 4.7 trillion won) through a new investment round led by Samsung Electronics. This development has established the foundation for Samsung Electronics and Mistral AI to pursue long-term technology cooperation and joint business initiatives. Other participants in the investment included the Scale-Up Europe Fund operated by private equity firm EQT and PSG Equity.

Samsung Electronics stated that, leveraging this partnership, it intends to accelerate AI transformation across all its business divisions, including semiconductors, and strengthen its competitiveness in the global AI semiconductor market.

Jeon Younghyun, Head of the DS Division at Samsung Electronics, said, "As the complexity of semiconductor design and manufacturing increases rapidly, the ability to safely and precisely leverage massive data through AI has emerged as essential competitive strength. Together with Mistral AI, we will set a new standard for AI-driven semiconductor innovation by building AI models and platforms tailored to the semiconductor industry."

Arthur Mensch, founder and CEO of Mistral AI, commented, "From semiconductors to software, AI is redefining the creation of advanced technologies. We are delighted to partner with Samsung Electronics, leveraging Mistral AI’s expertise in semiconductors, and we hope our collaboration will further progress semiconductor design, manufacturing, and the global AI value chain."

Meanwhile, Mistral AI, founded by researchers from Google DeepMind and Meta and led by CEO Mensch, is at the forefront of the European AI ecosystem and is recognized for its high-performance LLM technology and outstanding data security capabilities.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.