European tech leaders Helsing and Mistral have formed a pact to build new military AI systems.
The partnership brings together two of Europes top startups.
Helsing, a defence tech firm based in Germany, wasvalued at 5bnlast year.
Founded in 2021, the company develops software for weapons, vehicles, and military strategy.
Its systems have been deployed in battlefield simulations, fighter jets, and drones in Ukraine.
Mistral, meanwhile, is widely considered Europes closest competitor to OpenAI.
The partners announced their alliance today at a landmarkAI summit in Paris.
In a statement, they pledged to develop systems for the defence ofEurope.
Their collaboration will focus on vision-language-action (VLA) models.
An emerging field of AI, VLA blends visual perception, language understanding, and outputs for robotics.
Helsing and Mistral will bring the models into defence platforms.
The startups said the integration will boost decision-making, understanding of environments, and communication with operators.
Last month, the European Commissionallocatedover 1bn to defence R&D projects.
VC spending on military tech is alsosurgingin Europe.
A big chunk of these funds is flowing towards AI systems.
Helsing, for instance, raised a whopping 450mn last June.
By combining forces with Mistral, the startup plans to shape the future of defence tech.
Defence tech is a key theme of this years Assembly, the invite-only policy track ofTNW Conference.
The event takes place on June 19 and 20 a week before the NATO Summit arrives in Amsterdam.
Tickets for TNW Conference arenow on sale.
Use the code TNWXMEDIA2025 for an exclusive discount.
Story byThomas Macaulay
Thomas is the managing editor of TNW.
He leads our coverage of European tech and oversees our talented team of writers.
Away from work, he e(show all)Thomas is the managing editor of TNW.
He leads our coverage of European tech and oversees our talented team of writers.
Away from work, he enjoys playing chess (badly) and the guitar (even worse).
