MW Why ASML, which makes million-dollar machines, is buying a stake in AI chatbot creator

By Jules Rimmer

ASML to take 11% stake in Mistral AI

This photograph shows screens displaying the logo of the French artificial intelligence Mistral AI company, and a binary code in the background, in Toulouse, southwestern France, on September 9, 2025. ASML has invested 1.3 billion euros in French artificial intelligence company Mistral AI, becoming its largest shareholder with an 11% stake.

ASML's announcement it was buying a significant stake in a producer of one of the leading large language models has prompted both curiosity as well as praise.

Netherlands-based ASML announced Tuesday it was participating in the latest funding round for the French company Mistral AI, to the tune of EUR1.3 billion for an 11% stake.

Mistral competes against rivals including ChatGPT maker OpenAI and Claude maker Anthropic in the LLM space.

The move is a shift of sorts for ASML $(ASML)$ (NL:ASML) , a designer and manufacturer of the photolithography equipment used to produce microchips.

ASML described the move as "strategic" and said it would explore the use of AI models in its product portfolio as well as in research and development. ASML CFO Roger Dassen will join Mistral's board.

"We believe that this strategic partnership with Mistral AI, which goes beyond a traditional vendor-client relationship, is the best way to capture this significant opportunity. We also believe that this collaboration is value enhancing to Mistral AI," said ASML CEO Christophe Fouquet in a statement.

Bank of America's team, though, led by Didier Scemama, believe the investment could be a positive investment, perhaps enabling ASML to command a higher valuation multiple, now that it has some AI angle incorporated into its fortunes.

Scemama acknowledges "it may seem counterintuitive for a semicap company like ASML to take a stake in an LLM start-up" but he suggests the deal brings with it plenty of potential benefits.

Going forward, he posits, ASML will have a better understanding of the roadmap for AI companies, both in terms of logic and memory. He also imagines the transaction provides ASML with some optionality in the medium to long term. Moreover, ASML will be far better positioned to follow and influence the regulation of AI and also export control regulations.

Ultimately then, Bank of America's report, supposes that this investment may solidify ASML's position as the leader of European Tech with global ambitions. The street may start to attach an AI multiple to ASML and given ASML expects to generate EUR70 billion cumulative free cash flow through 2030, this is not a major outlay for the upside promise it offers.

Top 10 Countries by Estimated AI Contribution to Economy by 2030. Europe offers plenty of upside.

Mistral AI, whose founders came from DeepMind and Meta, focuses on both open source and proprietary LLMs, competing with well-established U.S giants like Google $(GOOG)$ , Meta $(META)$ and OpenAI.

-Jules Rimmer

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September 09, 2025 08:14 ET (12:14 GMT)

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