Seoul, April 5 (IANS) Executives from Samsung Electronics and French artificial intelligence (AI) startup Mistral AI discussed potential cooperation in the AI memory sector, industry sources said on Sunday.

Arthur Mensch, co-founder and chief executive officer of Mistral AI, met Jeon Young-hyun, head of Samsung Electronics’ device solutions division, on Thursday at the company’s Hwaseong campus to explore collaboration on AI chip supply chains and related technologies, the sources said.

Mensch was in South Korea last week on the occasion of French President Emmanuel Macron’s visit to Seoul for talks with President Lee Jae Myung, reports Yonhap news agency.

Mistral AI, often described as Europe’s counterpart to OpenAI, is seeking to secure a stable supply of semiconductors to support its large language model, Mistral Large, and to expand its AI infrastructure. The visit to Samsung’s semiconductor facility is viewed as part of that effort.

“Following recent discussions between Samsung executives and Lisa Su, CEO of Advanced Micro Devices, Mistral AI also appears to be pursuing talks with Samsung to ensure a reliable chip supply amid tight memory market conditions,” an industry official said.

Last month, Lisa Su, chief executive officer (CEO) of Advanced Micro Devices (AMD), met with officials from the South Korean government, Samsung Electronics and Upstage, as the US tech giant aims to step up artificial intelligence (AI) partnerships in the region.

Su met with Im Moon-young, vice chair of the National AI Strategy Committee, and Ha Jung-woo, presidential secretary for AI policy and future planning, discussing potential cooperation in the AI industry.

During the meeting, South Korean officials introduced Seoul’s policies aimed at making Asia’s fourth-largest economy one of the world’s top three AI powerhouses, while discussing ways to create synergies between Korean companies and AMD in the AI sector, according to the committee.

Seoul officials and AMD vowed to continue mutually beneficial cooperation to establish an open and global AI ecosystem, the committee added.

—IANS

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