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Mistral to borrow €750m for Paris data centre as Europe ramps up AI capacity
Mistral secured $830 million in debt from seven banks to buy 13,800 Nvidia GPUs, expanding AI compute capacity and targeting 200 MW across Europe by 2027.
On Monday, Paris-based Mistral AI secured over €750 million in debt financing to purchase 13,800 Nvidia GB300 chips for a major data center near Paris.
CEO Arthur Mensch of Mistral AI stated that "scaling our infrastructure in Europe is critical" to ensure AI autonomy as the company builds alternatives to US cloud providers amid geopolitical volatility.
A consortium of seven banks—including BNP Paribas, Crédit Agricole CIB, HSBC, and MUFG—arranged the financing for the facility at Bruyères-le-Châtel, expected to become operational in the second quarter of 2026.
This deployment advances Mistral's goal of securing 200MW of computing capacity across Europe by 2027, supporting governments and enterprises requiring data sovereignty and secure, locally-hosted AI infrastructure.
Beyond physical infrastructure, the company recently launched the Small 4 model and Forge platform to compete with US-based AI leaders OpenAI and Anthropic, though with smaller total funding levels.
The French start-up of artificial intelligence wants to be present throughout the value chain and put on demand for sovereign digital infrastructures in Europe.
The French start-up Mistral AI crossed a major course by raising 830 million dollars in debt to acquire 13,800 Nvidia chips and create a data center near Paris, in order to strengthen European autonomy in artificial intelligence and compete with American giants.