Written by Martin Coulter and Lee Thomas
LONDON (Reuters) – France had no prior knowledge of a partnership between Microsoft and tech startup Mistral AI, a Treasury official told Reuters, adding that France’s lobbying efforts to ease Europe’s AI regulations have led to a deal with U.S. tech giant Mistral AI. He denied the suggestion that it was done for the benefit of the government.
Earlier this week, Microsoft announced it would invest €15 million ($16 million) in Mistral and soon make the Paris-based company’s AI models available via its Azure cloud computing platform.
After the announcement, a Microsoft spokesperson told Reuters that the company had invested in Mistral without taking an equity stake. Microsoft subsequently revealed that its investment would be converted into equity in Mistral’s next funding round, a common practice among large tech companies investing in AI startups.
Mistral and the French government have previously lobbied for deregulation under the European Union’s broad AI law, ostensibly to avoid over-regulation of small startups.
Some EU lawmakers on Tuesday questioned whether Mistral had lobbied on Microsoft’s behalf and how much the French government knew about the partnership.
“That story appears to have been a sham by the big tech lobbies influenced by the US,” Kim van Spalentak, an EU lawmaker who worked closely on the AI law, told Reuters. “This law almost collapsed in the name of having no rules for ‘European champions’. Now look, European regulators were at their mercy.”
However, the French government denied any prior knowledge of the deal.
A French finance ministry official told Reuters: “Yesterday we learned about the technology partnership between Mistral and Microsoft. The young French company has joined Microsoft’s previously exclusive partnership with OpenAI on Microsoft’s Azure platform. That’s great news.”
“France, like all other member states, participated in the creation of the AI law. At that time, we did not know about this partnership project, but it had no concrete impact.”
Microsoft and Mistral did not respond to requests for comment.
(Reporting by Martin Coulter; Editing by Mark Potter)
