Samsung Electronics and Mistral AI announced a strategic partnership on September 9, 2026, to integrate Mistral's AI services, including Mistral Large, across Samsung's semiconductor operations. The collaboration aims to develop customized on-premises AI models for intelligence-driven infrastructure, with a focus on defect detection and equipment optimization in fabs. Samsung says the on-premises approach ensures security and flexibility for sensitive data.
As part of the deal, Samsung led Mistral AI's Series D funding round and secured a strategic equity stake in the company, though financial terms were not disclosed. The partnership is expected to accelerate development cycles, improve manufacturing precision, and stabilize yields, according to Samsung. Samsung says it plans to extend that AI work across its chip operations to serve customers in memory, logic and foundry services.
The announcement follows two Samsung deals from October 2025: a partnership with OpenAI on global AI infrastructure and one with NVIDIA built around a new AI megafactory for intelligent manufacturing. It also comes a day after Samsung and ASML expanded their collaboration on High NA EUV lithography for next-generation manufacturing.
Samsung's broader AI transformation includes previous efforts in consumer devices: the Galaxy S26 line was reported in December 2025 to be adding on-device AI through a deal with Nota AI, centered on the Exynos 2600 chipset. That chip, built on a 2nm process, delivers a 113% AI performance improvement over its predecessor, according to earlier reports.
Vice Chairman and CEO of Samsung's Device Solutions Division, Young Hyun Jun, said, "Increasing complexities involved in AI chip design and manufacturing requires continuous innovation in semiconductor technologies." Mistral co-founder and CEO Arthur Mensch added, "AI is reshaping how we build complex technologies, from silicon to software."
No specific timeline for the AI integration was provided, and the companies did not disclose how the on-premises models will be deployed across Samsung's fabs.
