CERN and Mistral partner to build AI foundation models for physics

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File photo of Mistral AI, the French artificial intelligence company. File | Photo Credit: Reuters

European physics ‌research centre CERN and Mistral AI ​have signed a ⁠statement of intent to establish a long-term strategic partnership to develop ‌foundation models for scientific discovery, the two organisations ‌said on Thursday (October 15, 2026).

The partners ‌aim ⁠to build a “Large Physics ⁠Model”, which CERN said in a statement would be the first foundation ​model for collider ‌physics, trained on billions of simulated particle collisions.

It is meant to replace some specialised ‌algorithms now used to reconstruct ​and identify particles.

CERN holds about one exabyte, or ⁠one million terabytes, of experimental data from the Large Hadron ‌Collider, and expects the volume of collisions to increase tenfold after its ongoing upgrade, expected around 2030.

“High-energy physics provides a unique environment ‌in which artificial intelligence can be developed ​and tested with exceptional rigour,” CERN Chief Information ⁠Officer Enrica Porcari said.

No timeline or ⁠budget was disclosed. Both sides said the models could ‌later serve other sciences.

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