French AI firm Mistral announces deals with BMW, Airbus

AFP | Paris

Email: mail@newsofbahrain.com

French AI firm Mistral announced yesterday partnerships with BMW and the aerospace group Airbus as it aims to boost growth by fostering links with defence and industry giants.

The Paris-based company, looking to punch above its weight in a sector dominated by US and Chinese firms, said it would be involved with carcrash tests and plane design.

“The most important use cases for AI are located in research and development and the creation of physical objects,” chief executive Arthur Mensch told hundreds of guests at the company’s first AI conference in Paris.

Mistral is already closely tied with ASML, the Dutch firm producing chipmaking equipment indispensable for the high-end semiconductors, which invested in the French company last year.

“It’s an interesting new market where Europe is strong... Europe has significant highend manufacturing companies,” Mensch had told reporters ahead of yesterday’s event.

The company this month bought an Austrian start-up, Emmi AI, that specialises in digital simulations for industry, after earlier snapping up the French cloud computing start-up Koyeb.

AFP has a deal with Mistral allowing the company’s chatbot to draw on the news agency’s articles to formulate responses.