France’s top artificial intelligence company, Mistral AI, announced Tuesday its purchase of Vienna-based Emmi AI for an undisclosed amount, as the firm works to expand its industrial services throughout Europe.
Emmi AI secured 15 million euros in what became Austria’s biggest funding round this year, focusing on artificial intelligence models that can manage intricate physics calculations including airflow dynamics, heat distribution, and material pressure analysis.
The role of industrial artificial intelligence continues expanding as Europe works toward re-industrialization goals. Last October, the European Commission identified manufacturing as one of several AI-critical industries, part of broader efforts to reduce European dependence on American and Chinese technology solutions.
Speaking with Reuters, Mistral explained the acquisition supports its primary strategy focused on European customers, particularly targeting engineering and manufacturing operations that the company believes receive insufficient attention from the broader industry.
Mistral creates customized solutions for individual clients, combining various AI technologies where one system might monitor production lines for flaws, another operates robotic equipment, and a third manages logistics information, all working together seamlessly.
Incorporating Emmi’s technology will enable these integrated systems to model and interact with physical environments more accurately, according to the company.
The firm highlighted its collaboration with ASML, where Mistral-powered EUV lithography equipment now employs vision technology to identify engraving problems, reducing diagnostic periods from several hours to merely eight minutes while decreasing waste of expensive silicon materials.
“You just save 10 hours of downtime on very expensive equipment,” ASML CFO Roger Dassen told shareholders at the company’s April AGM.
The company, working with clients including Stellantis, Veolia and drone manufacturer Helsing, explained to Reuters that specialized models developed using client-specific information will exceed the performance of standard alternatives trained on broad datasets, highlighting Europe’s century of manufacturing knowledge as a competitive edge.
CEO Arthur Mensch said in a statement that the acquisition should strengthen Mistral’s position as a partner for manufacturers in sectors such as aerospace, automotive, and semiconductors.
