Microsoft and the French AI company Mistral expanded their partnership on 21 July 2026, with Microsoft committing an undisclosed multibillion-dollar sum to help Mistral build data centres in Europe. Two Mistral models, Medium 3.5 and OCR 4, will be offered inside Microsoft Foundry and Copilot Studio, and through Azure Local, which lets customers run systems in their own data centres rather than the cloud. Both companies are aiming at regulated European industries that want European-built models and control over where their systems run.
What changed
Microsoft and Mistral had worked together since 2023, with a smaller investment and more limited distribution of Mistral's models through Microsoft products.
What it unlocks
Running Mistral's Medium 3.5 and OCR 4 models inside Microsoft Foundry and Copilot Studio, including on Azure Local so they can run in a company's own data centre rather than the public cloud.
- "multibillion-dollar" Microsoft commitment, amount not disclosed
- two-thirds of Mistral's customers already work with Microsoft
- Mistral valued at around $14 billion last year
- Mistral has promised more than $1 billion in revenue this year
What you need to act on it
- access to Microsoft Foundry, Copilot Studio or Azure Local
Sources