NAVER Cloud and Mistral AI Forge Comprehensive Partnership to Drive AI Innovation in Manufacturing

- Asia and Europe join forces in an AI market dominated by U.S. Big Tech, targeting manufacturing as their first strategic market

- Partnership combines NAVER Cloud's infrastructure with Mistral AI's capabilities proven across major European manufacturing sites

- Domestic business kicks off in Korea with full-stack product offerings and dedicated on-site engineers for hands-on customer support

July 8, 2026

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NAVER Cloud (CEO Kim Yu-won) and Mistral AI, France's leading AI company, announced on July 8 the signing of a comprehensive partnership agreement to jointly target the manufacturing AI market. The agreement carries particular significance as an alliance between leading technology companies from Asia and Europe, establishing an independent sovereign AI business domain in a market increasingly consolidated around U.S. Big Tech.

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Both companies are already members of the "Nemotron Alliance," a coalition formed by NVIDIA with major global companies, and thus share a common technology ecosystem. Building on this foundation, the two companies will pursue joint business centered on the manufacturing sector, where synergies are expected to be greatest. Rather than offering U.S.-centric general-purpose AI, the partners plan to target global manufacturers with sovereign AI solutions optimized for the data sovereignty requirements and industrial characteristics of manufacturing sites in Europe and Asia.

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Immediately following the signing, the two companies held a joint workshop with key technical staff at 1784, NAVER's second headquarters, launching plans for commercial service rollouts in manufacturing and establishing an execution roadmap. The companies will continue R&D collaboration and technical exchanges between their research teams, jointly identifying AI challenges on industrial sites and building a virtuous cycle of validating and advancing solutions in real-world environments.

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Mistral AI has built manufacturing-specific AI capabilities proven in the global market through collaborations with major European manufacturers including Airbus, BMW, and ASML. By combining their respective strengths, the two companies plan to jointly bring sovereign AI solutions to the global market that can be deployed immediately at actual manufacturing sites.

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As part of the partnership, the two companies are also launching business in Korea. Mistral AI's latest models, platform, and other full-stack products will be offered through the NAVER Cloud Platform, while Mistral AI's forward-deployed engineers (FDEs) will be dispatched directly to domestic customer sites to provide technical support and issue resolution.

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As their first initiative, the partners will adapt Mistral AI's proven manufacturing AI use cases from European sites — including real-time quality anomaly detection and parts selection optimization — to the Korean manufacturing environment. Through this, the companies aim to help Korean manufacturers effectively leverage world-class manufacturing AI technology in a secure environment where data is never exposed externally.

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"This partnership is a substantive business collaboration that combines Mistral AI's manufacturing-specific technology, proven in the global market, with NAVER Cloud's reliable infrastructure," said Kim Yu-won, CEO of NAVER Cloud. "We will build successful references in Korea and, on that foundation, continue to identify joint business opportunities in the global sovereign AI market."

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"NAVER Cloud is the ideal partner with whom to realize our manufacturing AI business," said Jeff Soon, Head of APAC at Mistral AI. "By combining the expertise Mistral AI has accumulated at European manufacturing sites with NAVER Cloud's robust infrastructure, we will provide tangible support for the AI transformation of manufacturers in Korea and around the world."