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- Mistral AI reportedly rejects Apple acquisition offer
Mistral AI reportedly rejects Apple acquisition offer
ALSO : Measuring AI serving environmental impact at scale
Geoffrey NICHIL
August 25, 2025
News of the day
1. French AI startup Mistral AI, founded in April 2023 and valued at 5.8 billion euros, reportedly declined a potential acquisition offer from Apple. → Read more
2. This paper introduces a comprehensive methodology to measure AI serving's environmental impact, covering energy, emissions, and water. It finds that a median Gemini Apps text prompt uses 0.24 Wh of energy. → Read more
3. The U.S. federal government has secured a major AI deal with Google, integrating Gemini AI across operations via the GSA.→ Read more
4. xAI has open-sourced Grok 2.5, its previous best AI model, on Hugging Face. Elon Musk plans to open-source Grok 3 within six months.→ Read more
Our take
Hi Dotikers!
This week, French Tech had its summer soap opera: Apple is reportedly considering swallowing Mistral AI. The rumor gained traction in July, eventually becoming a real hot topic within the ecosystem.
The spark came from a mention in Mark Gurman’s newsletter, picked up by the tech press, suggesting that Cupertino might seriously be weighing an acquisition of the Parisian gem. Nothing official, but enough to fire up the collective imagination.
On Apple’s side, there is at least a signal. Tim Cook has said he is open to larger acquisitions to accelerate AI, while reminding everyone that Apple has historically favored targeted takeovers. For the record, its biggest deal remains Beats in 2014 for $3 billion; far from a double-digit billion check. In other words, this would mark an unprecedented change of pace.
On Mistral’s side, the message is crystal clear: not for sale. Arthur Mensch repeated it in January, favoring a path of autonomous hypergrowth, while the startup locks in major partnerships and heavy funding, including the Azure deal with Microsoft and a €600 million raise in 2024. Spoiler: Tim Cook won’t be showing up in Bercy tomorrow with an oversized check.
There’s also a political and industrial backdrop: at VivaTech, the “Mistral Compute” partnership with Nvidia was celebrated as a sovereignty milestone, with the announcement of computing infrastructure in France. Translation: Mistral is positioning itself at the heart of a European value chain that has no interest in changing flags.
An Apple takeover seems unlikely in the short term; and, above all, undesirable for the ecosystem. Beyond the founders’ intentions, a deal of this magnitude would fall under heightened scrutiny of foreign investments, with AI R&D explicitly listed among sensitive sectors.
I will kick your a… AI strategy 😉 G.
Meme of the day
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