Naver Cloud said on Tuesday it signed a wide-ranging partnership with France's Mistral AI to jointly target the manufacturing AI market.

The companies share the same technology ecosystem as members of Nvidia's Nemotron Alliance. Based on that, they will pursue joint business in manufacturing. They plan to target global manufacturers with sovereign AI solutions aligned with data sovereignty needs at manufacturing sites in Europe and Asia.

Right after signing the contract, the companies held a joint workshop at Naver's second headquarters, 1784, and began drawing up plans and an execution roadmap to launch commercialised services for manufacturing. They also agreed to continue R&D cooperation between their research teams.

Mistral AI is a company that has worked with European manufacturers such as Airbus, BMW and ASML, and has had its manufacturing-focused AI capabilities validated.

Through the cooperation, the companies will also start business in South Korea. Full-stack products including Mistral AI's latest models and platforms will be supplied through the Naver Cloud platform. Mistral AI field-dedicated engineers will be dispatched to local customer sites to provide technical support and resolve issues.

The companies set their first task as applying Mistral AI's use cases from European manufacturing sites in real-time quality anomaly detection and parts selection optimisation to South Korea's manufacturing environment. They plan to help local manufacturers use manufacturing AI technology in an environment where data is not exposed outside.

Naver Cloud CEO Yoo-won Kim (김유원) said, "This partnership is a business cooperation that combines Mistral AI's manufacturing-specialised technology and Naver Cloud's stable infrastructure." He added, "We will build domestic references and identify joint business opportunities in the global sovereign AI market."

Mistral AI APAC head Jeff Soon (제프 순) said, "Naver Cloud is the optimal partner to realise manufacturing AI business together." He added, "By combining Mistral AI's know-how built up at European manufacturing sites and Naver Cloud's infrastructure, we will support AI transformation for global manufacturers, including in South Korea."