Mistral, a French AI startup, has announced a €1.2 billion investment to build data centers in Sweden, its first outside of France.

A call for European unity

Arthur Mensch, CEO of Mistral, urged greater European unity in the global competition for artificial intelligence. According to Mensch, considering AI as a state project would be a mistake, and the only way to compete with the US market is to think of Europe as a unified market, with businesses and states buying European technology.

Investment details

The new data centers will be built in collaboration with EcoDataCentre and will have a capacity of 23 MW. The choice of Sweden is motivated by access to clean energy sources, an increasingly important factor for European companies. Mistral has experienced 20 times growth in the last year, thanks to increasing demand from businesses.

Political stability as a competitive advantage

Ebba Busch, Sweden's deputy prime minister, emphasized how European political stability represents a competitive advantage in the global AI race, favoring investment. Busch added that European success will depend on the ability to develop trusted systems, rather than building the largest AI models.