NTT and Mistral AI Target Sovereign European AI Data Centres
NTT DATA has partnered with French startup Mistral AI to develop sovereign, secure and sustainable AI solutions aimed at enterprise and public sector clients.
The collaboration will focus on building private AI ecosystems with end-to-end infrastructure hosted in regional data centres, targeting customers in Europe and the Asia-Pacific region.
The joint effort responds to a growing demand for AI platforms that meet strict data privacy and security requirements.
By combining NTT DATA’s infrastructure footprint and integration capabilities with Mistral AI’s large language models (LLMs), the two companies plan to provide enterprise-ready systems tailored for local regulatory frameworks and industry-specific needs.
“Collaborating with Mistral AI to bring trustworthy, impactful AI to market aligns with NTT DATA’s mission to accelerate client success and positively impact society through responsible innovation,” says Abhijit Dubey, CEO of NTT DATA.
Private cloud AI built for compliance
At the core of the partnership is a commitment to deliver AI infrastructure that supports private deployments for clients operating in sensitive or regulated environments.
This includes financial services, defence, insurance and public sector organisations.
NTT DATA and Mistral AI will jointly design full-stack platforms, from infrastructure and compute to LLMs and AI-driven business applications.
These solutions will be deployed in private cloud environments or on-premises data centres, maintaining strict control over data flows and enabling compliance with laws such as the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and the forthcoming AI Act.
Arthur Mensch, CEO and co-founder of Mistral AI, says: “By collaborating with a global leader in digital transformation like NTT DATA, we will bring our next-generation AI solutions into real-world business applications, with a strong focus on organisations that need the highest standards of data privacy in their AI journey.”
The alliance also aims to align with the principles of sovereign AI, ensuring that both development and deployment of models remain within a specific jurisdiction.
This reduces reliance on foreign cloud providers and black-box AI systems, a priority for many European enterprises navigating geopolitical constraints and digital sovereignty objectives.
Data centre footprint supports agentic AI at scale
The partnership will integrate Mistral AI’s advanced models into NTT DATA’s Smart AI Agent Ecosystem, with early use cases focused on customer service automation within contact centres.
These deployments will be backed by NTT’s own data centre infrastructure, enabling secure processing, storage and model operation.
NTT DATA’s data centres already support private infrastructure for high-compliance workloads. With Mistral AI’s models onboard, the company will deliver low-latency AI services with strict locality guarantees.
Local language model development is also under review, with plans to build LLMs tailored to French, Spanish and other regional markets.
To support the integration, NTT DATA will establish a dedicated Mistral AI Center of Excellence.
Staffed by specialists in AI infrastructure and deployment, this centre will serve as the operational base for joint activity across target regions.
Mistral AI will also introduce a technical training and certification programme for NTT DATA teams, ensuring consistent delivery across projects.
From September, Abhijit Dubey will take on an additional role as Chief AI Officer to lead the company’s long-term AI strategy alongside his CEO responsibilities.
“By joining forces with Mistral AI, we will harness the power of high-performing AI models combined with NTT DATA’s comprehensive AI capabilities, including our Smart AI Agent Ecosystem,” Abhijit says.
“In doing so, we can assure secure, scalable and sustainable deployments for enterprises across the globe.”
Regional growth driven by tailored infrastructure
Initial go-to-market efforts will focus on countries including France, Luxembourg, Spain, Singapore and Australia.
In each region, the companies will adapt infrastructure deployment and model customisation to meet specific regulatory and market needs.
Dedicated sales teams will be established to support AI adoption across sectors.
The partnership provides a complete service lifecycle, from initial use case design to implementation and managed support.
The emphasis on regional execution and local hosting positions NTT DATA and Mistral AI to meet the evolving demands of enterprises seeking to adopt AI without losing control of sensitive data or relying on global cloud platforms.
