TotalEnergies forms AI partnership with French startup Mistral

By America Hernandez

(Reuters) -French oil major TotalEnergies has partnered with artificial intelligence (AI) startup Mistral to build digital tools it hopes will boost the performance of its energy business and industrial assets, boost energy efficiency and reduce its environmental impact, it said on Thursday.

The collaboration has already begun, with teams meeting at both companies' existing sites. No physical laboratory is planned, a TotalEnergies spokesperson said.

Mistral will work with Total to develop an AI-powered assistant to help the energy company develop new projects, suggest decisions on running industrial sites to reduce emissions, and improve customer support solutions to help clients save energy, according to a statement.

"AI has huge potential to transform energy systems ... This deal reflects our intention to contribute to the emergence of a technological ecosystem in Europe," TotalEnergies CEO Patrick Pouyanne said in a statement.

Earlier this week, Mistral launched Europe's first AI reasoning model, which uses logical thinking to create a response, as the French startup tries to keep pace with U.S. and Chinese rivals at the forefront of AI development.

Total has been formally collaborating with outside AI startups since 2022, when it launched a program meant to find solutions to improve the profitability of its electricity business.

Those partnerships have ranged from algorithm-based predictive maintenance of wind turbines, to optimization of its electricity trading based on advanced weather models, and more precise digital planning of future renewable farms.

The energy firm has also experimented with Microsoft's Copilot, a conversational AI-powered assistant, by granting employees access for six months to determine what uses were most helpful, Pouyanne said at the AI Action Summit in Paris in February.

(Reporting by Gianluca Lo Nostro in Gdansk, America Hernandez in ParisEditing by Tomasz Janowski)