Why does ASML want Mistral AI?

By Junko Yoshida for Junko’s Tech Probe – In normal times, a semiconductor lithography tool vendor and an AI startup developing AI foundation models would be considered strange bedfellows. So, what’s ASML’s motivation?

ASML, the world’s largest semiconductor manufacturing equipment supplier, is planning to become the top shareholder of French AI startup Mistral AI, according to Reuters.

In normal times, a semiconductor lithography tool vendor and an AI startup developing AI foundation models would be considered strange bedfellows. They operate in business domains so different that they might well occupy two separate universes.

But look closely. Connecting the two are “AI” and each company’s “pedigree.”

In an AI-driven world, they are two champions — born and raised in Europe.

Today’s market would stall without advanced AI chips, whose production is heavily reliant on ASML’s leading edge lithography technology. No wafer fab equipment suppliers in the world can match what ASML offers.

Among a number of AI companies working on AI foundation models, Mistral is among France’s most promising AI tech startups. It is considered ready to go toe to toe with OpenAI.

Providing air cover for—or justifying ASML’s interest in Mistral—is the idea of “tech sovereignty,” one of the trendiest political and economic concepts in the post-globalization era.

I got in touch with Yole Group, a Lyon, France based market intelligence company, to seeks out analysts fluent in the technology/ economy/ politics vortex in Europe.

Pierre Cambou, Yole’s Principal Technology and Market Analyst for Global Semiconductors, views ASML machines “as probably the most complex engineering marvel and a pinnacle of human skills in this field.” He predicts that AI will become the key ingredient for ASML’s innovation efforts. “The next logical step will involve AI in the making.” Full article

Source: https://junkoyoshidaparis.substack.com