Europe’s leading AI model firm has acquired an Austrian AI startup to expand its offering for aerospace, automotive, and industrial businesses across Europe. France’s Mistral has acquired Emmi AI, marking its second acquisition, for an undisclosed sum.
Emmi AI, founded in 2024 and which last year raised the largest-ever seed round for an Austrian startup, builds AI models that help industrial companies speed up engineering workflows and product design cycles. Specifically, it has developed expertise in physics AI, developing engineering AI models.
Emmi AI is part of a new wave of “applied AI” companies using AI to solve long-standing engineering challenges, such as computational fluid dynamics, thermal analysis, and material stress testing – critical tasks across industries like aerospace, automotive, energy, and semiconductors. The move comes as Mistral, seen as a European competitor to larger US LLM firms such as OpenAI and Anthropic, seeks to position itself as the AI partner for industrial enterprises across Europe.
Emmi AI’s €15m seed round last year was led by 3VC, Speedinvest, Serena, and PUSH VC. Emmi AI’s co-founders and its team of more than 30 researchers and engineers will join Mistral’s Science and Applied AI teams later this year, Mistral said to Tech_eu. Mistral, which earlier this year acquired French AI startup Koyeb, said the acquisition means it’s increasing its investment in Europe, in particular in Austria, Germany, and Lithuania, where the Emmi team is based.
It will further hire locally among the best experts in the field, it said. Arthur Mensch, co-founder and CEO, Mistral, said: “This strategic acquisition cements Mistral’s leadership in industrial AI and positions us as the partner of choice for manufacturers in high-stakes sectors like aerospace, automotive, or semiconductors. It empowers our customers with a fully integrated platform to solve complex challenges, transform core R&D processes, and accelerate high-value innovation.”
Johannes Brandstetter, Emmi AI’s co-founder and chief science officer, said: “At Emmi AI, we have dedicated ourselves to solving high-stakes physical challenges, ranging from the real-time stabilisation of power grids to the intricate simulation of injection molding and automotive safety testing. By integrating our expertise into Mistral’s world-class AI ecosystem, we are positioned to revolutionise core R&D.”
