Naver Cloud CEO Kim Yu-won, left, shakes hands with Mistral AI APAC head Geoff Soon during a partnership signing ceremony at Naver Cloud's headquarters in Seongnam, Gyeonggi Province, Tuesday. Courtesy of Naver Cloud
Naver Cloud and French artificial intelligence (AI) company Mistral AI said Wednesday that they have signed a comprehensive partnership agreement to jointly pursue the manufacturing AI market, positioning an Asian and a European technology firm together at a time when the global AI industry is increasingly dominated by major U.S. companies.
The two companies are both members of the Nemotron Coalition, a group of firms working with Nvidia's Nemotron family of AI models, and already share overlapping technology.
Building on that base, they plan to focus their joint business on manufacturing, an area where they see the greatest potential synergy. Rather than competing with general-purpose AI centered on the U.S., the companies aim to offer manufacturers in Europe and Asia so-called sovereign AI solutions, which keep data processing within a company's or country's own borders, rather than in AI systems based overseas.
Immediately after signing, the companies held a joint workshop with technical staff at Naver's second headquarters, called 1784, to begin mapping out a commercialization plan and road map for manufacturing services. Mistral AI has built a track record in the sector through work with European manufacturers including Airbus, BMW and ASML.
