Apple Considers Acquiring French AI Startup Mistral

Imagine that the Cupertino-based technology giant Apple is preparing for the largest acquisition in its history. According to a report published by Bloomberg on July 13, 2025, Apple is seriously considering acquiring the French startup Mistral, which specializes in artificial intelligence. The report comes at a time when Apple is facing criticism for its slower progress in AI compared with its competitors. As Europe's largest AI startup, with a valuation of approximately €5.8 billion, or around CZK 144.5 billion, Mistral could give Apple the boost it needs. Speculation points to an offer of up to $15 billion, or approximately CZK 319 billion, which would surpass all of Apple's previous acquisitions.

Details About the Mistral Startup

Mistral is a French startup that has quickly established itself in the field of artificial intelligence. Since its founding, it has raised a total of €1.1 billion through seven funding rounds. Most recently, in June last year, it closed a €600 million Series B round led by investment firms such as DST Global and General Catalyst. According to recent Bloomberg reports, Mistral is in talks to raise up to another $1 billion, including hundreds of millions of euros in debt financing from lenders.

The startup focuses on developing both large and small language models, which have achieved success thanks to features such as optical character recognition (OCR). It also operates a chatbot called Le Chat, which is known for providing fast responses to user queries and supporting Czech. These technologies make Mistral an attractive target for companies seeking to strengthen their AI capabilities, particularly in models suitable for devices (edge AI), where the emphasis is on privacy and local data processing.

Apple and Its AI Problems

Apple has struggled with artificial intelligence in recent years. Its AI ecosystem has faced criticism and user dissatisfaction for more than two years. For example, the Siri virtual assistant has undergone improvements, but its full version has been delayed until spring 2026. The company is exploring the integration of third-party models to improve Siri on its devices.

In addition, Apple is losing key talent. Ruoming Pang, a prominent engineer and manager of the foundation models team, recently left to join Meta for a compensation package worth tens of millions of dollars annually. Another departure was senior researcher Tom Gunter, who spent eight years at Apple and whose colleagues consider him difficult to replace because of his unique skills.

This acquisition could give Apple the "jump-start" it needs. Mistral's open-weight models are ideal for on-device AI, aligning with Apple's emphasis on user privacy. Moreover, this is not the first such consideration—Apple previously discussed acquiring the American startup Perplexity, but Perplexity's management denied these discussions and stated that it had no knowledge of any current or future mergers.

Potential Obstacles

Although the idea of an acquisition sounds appealing, it faces serious obstacles. The French government and the European Union view Mistral as a strategic national AI asset and could therefore use legal mechanisms to block its sale to an American giant. Europe is seeking to protect its technology companies from foreign acquisitions, particularly in critical sectors such as artificial intelligence. In addition, the open-source developer community could protest if Apple were to restrict access to Mistral's models.

Further information online indicates that Apple is also considering other companies, such as Thinking Machines Lab, but Mistral offers a unique combination of technology and strategic alignment. If a deal were reached, it could accelerate Apple's progress in AI, but political and regulatory storms in Europe could complicate or completely halt it.

This potential acquisition shows how Apple is looking for ways to catch up with the competition in the AI race. With Mistral, it could strengthen its position in generative AI, improve Siri, and focus on privacy. For now, this remains speculation, but if it happens, it could become the largest acquisition in Apple's history.