Airbus has selected France-based artificial intelligence company Mistral AI to support its development, testing and manufacturing activities across civil and defense programs.
The partnership is announced On May 28, the company plans to expand its use of AI across its commercial aircraft, helicopter, defense and space operations.
It is structured to meet stringent security and sovereignty requirements, including critical and sensitive military aerospace applications.
Airbus has licensed the entire Mistral AI product suite, allowing you to deploy models on-premises, in a trusted cloud, or elsewhere as needed.
The agreement also gives Airbus access to Mistral AI researchers and influence over AI product roadmaps, supporting the development of bespoke solutions to complex aerospace challenges.
Airbus and Mistral AI have identified several areas of cooperation, some of which are already underway, Airbus said.
In engineering and design, the companies plan to accelerate innovation and design cycles through AI-driven simulation, including optimizing aircraft parts and supporting engineers during the development, testing and certification stages.
Industrial Operations focuses on streamlining complex workflows, specifically automating technical documentation for commercial aircraft and helicopters.
The partners are also looking to equip spacecraft and aircraft with AI models, known as edge AI, for applications such as automatic object recognition to enhance situational awareness and flight safety.
Sovereign defense applications such as cyber investigation and coding assistance are delivered through highly secure on-premises deployments.
“This partnership paves the way for the deployment of high-impact, high-value use cases for trusted and responsible AI in aerospace,” said Katherine Jestyn, Executive Vice President, Digital, Airbus. “Thanks to our high-performance models and bespoke support from Mistral AI experts, we are building the foundation we need to enhance our current and future products and services, allowing us to better serve our customers.”
Founded in Paris in 2023, Mistral AI develops open-weight large-scale language models and is positioned as a European alternative to large-scale AI developers in the United States.
“We are proud to partner with Airbus and contribute to its critical industrial operations. Together, we will deploy Mistral’s fully integrated AI stack to accelerate innovation, help improve flight safety, and deliver greater value to our customers,” said Timothy Lacroix, co-founder and CTO of Mistral AI.
