As part of the agreement, ‌Microsoft Azure customers will be able to develop software using Mistral's data centers in France, giving Microsoft more capacity in Europe and regulated industries an ​alternative to U.S.-controlled infrastructure. Mistral, meanwhile, has added its AI models called Medium 3.5 and OCR 4 to Microsoft's app builder known as Foundry. Finally, businesses with independent data centers that access Microsoft services via Azure Local will have the option to run Mistral's "open" models, which give customers license to develop AI as their own. "By putting Mistral's models on Azure Local and on Mistral's computational capacity, we can combine American and European technology and do it in a way that provides continuous and assured access," Smith said. Nvidia chips powering the global AI boom, also key to Mistral's data-center buildout, are American-designed.