Airbus has selected France-based artificial intelligence company Mistral AI to support its development, testing and manufacturing activities across civil and defence programmes.
The partnership, which was announced on 28 May, will expand the use of AI across the company’s commercial aircraft, helicopter, defence and space activities.
It is structured to meet strict security and sovereignty requirements, including for critical, highly confidential and military aerospace applications.
Airbus is acquiring licences for the full Mistral AI product suite, enabling the deployment of models on-premises, in trusted clouds or elsewhere as required.
The arrangement also gives Airbus access to Mistral AI researchers and influence over the AI’s product roadmap, supporting the development of bespoke solutions for complex aerospace challenges.
Airbus and Mistral AI have identified several collaboration areas, some already under way, said Airbus.
In engineering and design, the companies plan to accelerate innovation and design cycles through AI-driven simulations, including aircraft part optimisation and support for engineers during development, test and certification phases.
Industrial operations work will focus on streamlining complex workflows, particularly the automation of technical document production for commercial aircraft and helicopters.
The partners are also exploring the deployment of AI models on board spacecraft and aircraft, known as edge AI, for applications such as automatic object recognition to enhance situational awareness and flight safety.
Sovereign defence applications, including cyber investigation and coding assistance, would be delivered through highly secure on-premises deployments.
“This partnership paves the way for the deployment of high-impact, high-value use cases of trusted and responsible AI in aerospace.” said Catherine Jestin, executive vice president digital at Airbus. “Thanks to the high-performance models and made-to-measure support of Mistral AI experts, we are building the foundations necessary to power our current and future products and services, enabling us to serve our customers better.”
Founded in Paris in 2023, Mistral AI develops open-weight large language models and is positioned as a European alternative to larger US AI developers.
“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, contribute to improve flight safety, and deliver greater value for customers”, said Timothée Lacroix, co-founder and CTO at Mistral AI.
