Microsoft to fund Mistral's European AI expansion in multibillion-dollar deal

SAN FRANCISCO, July 21 : Microsoft has agreed to spend billions of dollars on Mistral's computing infrastructure in Europe under a deal that will also expand distribution of the French AI startup's technology through the U.S. cloud and software giant, the companies said on Tuesday.As part of the agreement, Microsoft Azure customers will be able to develop software using Mistral's data centers in France, giving Microsoft more capacity in Europe and regulated industries an alternative to U.S.-controlled infrastructure.Mistral, meanwhile, has added its AI models called Medium 3.5 and OCR 4 to Microsoft's app builder known as Foundry. Microsoft Copilot Studio has brought on Medium 3.5 as well.Finally, businesses with independent data centers that access Microsoft services via Azure Local will