France had no prior knowledge of Microsoft's partnership with tech startup Mistral AI, a finance ministry official told Reuters, denying suggestions that French lobbying for looser European AI rules had been on behalf of the U.S. tech giant. Earlier this week, Microsoft said it had made a 15-million euro ( million) investment in Mistral, and would soon make the Paris-based company's AI models available via its Azure cloud computing platform. Following the announcement, a Microsoft spokesperson told Reuters it had invested in Mistral without taking a stake.