Airbus and BMW strike deals with France’s Mistral to bring AI to defence and safety systems
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As European companies look for alternatives to US tech giants in the race for artificial intelligence, Airbus and BMW have both partnered with French startup Mistral AI to develop systems ranging from flight safety and defence technology to car crash simulations.
Airbus has signed a partnership with French AI start-up Mistral AI, to expand the use of AI across its aviation, defence and space businesses.
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According to a joint press statement released on Thursday, the European aerospace giant aims to embed artificial intelligence across its commercial aircraft, helicopter, defence and space operations.
Under the agreement, Airbus will gain access to Mistral AI’s full range of products and researchers, allowing the company to develop custom AI tools for complex aerospace projects.
Airbus said the partnership would focus on “trusted” and “secure” AI, particularly for sensitive defence and aerospace applications.
“This partnership paves the way for the deployment of high-impact, high-value use cases of trusted and responsible AI in aerospace,” Catherine Jestin, executive vice president of digital at Airbus, said in a statement.
"Together, we will deploy Mistral’s fully integrated AI stack to accelerate innovation, contribute to improve flight safety, and deliver greater value for customers”, said Timothée Lacroix, co-founder and Chief Technology Officer at Mistral AI.
The partnership also gives Airbus access to Mistral's research teams and a degree of influence over the company's product roadmap.
The two companies have identified several priority areas for collaboration. These include exploring AI systems that could be used onboard aircraft and spacecraft and automating technical document production, accelerating engineering design cycles through AI-driven simulations and developing so-called edge AI capabilities — namely, models running directly on hardware — for applications such as automatic object recognition to support flight safety.
They are also studying defence applications such as cyber investigations and coding support in highly secure environments.
The two companies said they would work together in several key areas, including developing AI systems that could be used onboard aircraft and spacecraft.
They also plan to use AI-powered simulations to speed up engineering and aircraft design processes.
The partnership will also explore defence-related uses of AI, including cyber investigations and coding support in highly secure environments.
Timothée Lacroix, co-founder and chief technology officer at Mistral AI, said the two companies would work together to "accelerate innovation, contribute to improve flight safety, and deliver greater value for customers."
The deal comes as European companies and institutions grow increasingly uneasy about their dependence on US-based AI providers, amid concerns over data sovereignty, security exposure and the legal reach of American legislation over data stored on US-owned infrastructure.
Mistral is also exploring designing its own chips and may eventually develop them, CEO Arthur Mensch told CNBC, as the company moves to "control more of its infrastructure" while competing with US heavyweights like OpenAI and Anthropic.
Mistral AI, founded in Paris in 2023, has positioned itself as a European alternative to US-based AI providers, with a focus on open-weight models and data sovereignty, factors likely to weigh heavily in defence and aerospace procurement decisions.
RelatedBMW also signs Mistral AI partnership
BMW announced a separate partnership with Mistral AI on the same day, focused on using artificial intelligence to improve crash simulations and vehicle development.
The German carmaker said the collaboration would help speed up complex engineering work and improve the accuracy of safety testing by training AI systems on BMW’s large archive of crash simulation data.
BMW runs thousands of virtual crash tests every week and has built up more than one petabyte of historical simulation data, which the company says can be used to develop industry-specific AI models for automotive engineering.
The deal is part of a broader push by European manufacturers to use AI in industrial design, production and research.
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