Accenture and Mistral AI Accelerate Enterprise Reinvention with Scalable AI that Delivers Strategic Autonomy for Customers

PARIS--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Feb 26, 2026--

Accenture (NYSE: ACN) and Mistral AI have announced a multi-year strategic collaboration designed to help organizations in Europe and around the world scale advanced AI. The two companies will help clients rapidly move to secure, large-scale AI deployments aligned with regional requirements.

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Together, Accenture and Mistral AI will co-develop and deliver enterprise-grade AI solutions that address real industry challenges and create measurable impact across sectors. Clients will benefit from Mistral AI’s scientific innovation and breadth of enterprise-grade AI products with Accenture’s proven capabilities to architect, govern and scale AI across complex organizations. This joint approach will help enterprises capture value quickly and securely, supported by Accenture’s global network of AI specialists and its deep understanding of industry processes, regulatory environments and transformation needs.

“Our clients are looking for AI solutions that combine world class performance with the complete ownership that Mistral AI’s technology offers enterprises,” said Mauro Macchi, CEO for Europe, Middle East, and Africa at Accenture. “By partnering with Mistral AI, a leading global innovator, we bring together sovereign models and the capability to scale technology across industries, geographies and business functions. Our go-to-market collaboration will enable enterprises in Europe and around the world to accelerate reinvention with AI, securely and deeply connected to strategic priorities.”

Arthur Mensch, CEO and co-founder of Mistral AI, added, “We are proud to partner with Accenture, whose international reach and industry depth make them an ideal partner to continue driving AI transformations for enterprises at scale. Together, we will help organizations deploy AI that meets their needs for performance, control, and customization. This collaboration marks an important milestone for industries around the world to realize the ROI of AI.”

The companies will launch dedicated training and certification programs for clients to provide the knowledge and capabilities needed to deploy, finetune and operate Mistral AI-powered solutions at scale, as well as support the change management required for successful transformation.

As part of the agreement, Accenture will become a customer of Mistral AI, equipping its professionals with Mistral AI’s models and products, including Mistral AI Studio, and embed Mistral AI’s technologies into Accenture’s operations to support client solutions.

About Accenture

Accenture is a leading solutions and services company that helps the world’s leading enterprises reinvent by building their digital core and unleashing the power of AI to create value at speed across the enterprise, bringing together the talent of our approximately 784,000 people, our proprietary assets and platforms, and deep ecosystem relationships. Our strategy is to be the reinvention partner of choice for our clients and to be the most client-focused, AI-enabled, great place to work in the world. Through our Reinvention Services we bring together our capabilities across strategy, consulting, technology, operations, Song and Industry X with our deep industry expertise to create and deliver solutions and services for our clients. Our purpose is to deliver on the promise of technology and human ingenuity, and we measure our success by the 360° value we create for all our stakeholders. Visit us at accenture.com.

About Mistral AI

Mistral AI is a pioneer company in generative artificial intelligence, empowering the world with the tools to build and benefit from the most transformative technology of our time. The company democratizes AI through high-performance, optimized, and cutting-edge open-source models, products and solutions as well as end-to-end infrastructure with Mistral Compute. Headquartered in France and independent, Mistral AI defends a decentralized and transparent approach to technology, with a strong global presence in the United States, United Kingdom, and Singapore. Learn more at www.mistral.ai.

Forward Looking Statements

Except for the historical information and discussions contained herein, statements in this news release may constitute forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Words such as “may,” “will,” “should,” “likely,” “anticipates,” “aspires,” “expects,” “intends,” “plans,” “projects,” “believes,” “estimates,” “positioned,” “outlook,” “goal,” “target” and similar expressions are used to identify these forward-looking statements. These statements are not guarantees of future performance nor promises that goals or targets will be met, and involve a number of risks, uncertainties and other factors that are difficult to predict and could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied. These risks include, without limitation, that the partnership might not achieve its anticipated benefits and risks and uncertainties related to the development and use of AI, including advanced AI, could harm our business, damage our reputation or give rise to legal or regulatory action, as well as the risks, uncertainties and other factors discussed under the “Risk Factors” heading in Accenture plc’s most recent Annual Report on Form 10-K and other documents filed with or furnished to the Securities and Exchange Commission. Statements in this news release speak only as of the date they were made, and Accenture undertakes no duty to update any forward-looking statements made in this news release or to conform such statements to actual results or changes in Accenture’s expectations.

Accenture and Mistral AI have announced a multi-year strategic collaboration designed to help organizations in Europe and around the world scale advanced AI.

NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — Africa’s freight corridors, long dominated by diesel trucks and constrained by unreliable power grids, are emerging as a new frontier in the global shift toward clean logistics, with solar-powered charging hubs designed specifically for heavy-duty electric trucks.

In Africa, Cape Town-based Zero Carbon Charge, or Charge, is pioneering this technology. It follows global models such as WattEV in California and Milence, a joint venture between Germany’s Daimler Truck and Volvo, which have built solar-powered truck charging hubs to support high-capacity freight charging.

Charge is rolling out two fully off-grid, solar-powered electric vehicle charging stations along South Africa’s busiest freight and passenger corridor between Johannesburg and Durban, following a pilot that successfully fully charged a heavy-duty electric truck using only solar energy.

The rollout along the 570-kilometer (354-mile) N3 highway — a key artery linking the country’s economic hub with its main port — is backed by a $6.2 million equity investment from the Development Bank of Southern Africa (DBSA). The funding, announced last July, was conditional on the company building off-grid charging infrastructure every 150 kilometers (90 miles) along national roads.

Charge said the two stations will be completed by June, enabling long-distance EV travel along one of South Africa’s busiest transport routes.

The company's co-founder, Joubert Roux, said the next phase will focus on the N1 corridor connecting Johannesburg and Cape Town, extending off-grid, ultra-fast charging across South Africa’s main long-distance routes.

Each off-grid site costs about $1.25 million.

“This investment allows us to move from pilot projects to full-scale rollouts,” Roux said. “We have proven that it’s possible to fully charge electric trucks using solar energy, and now we are building the infrastructure to do that commercially and reliably.”

Charge successfully demonstrated its capacity to link clean energy with freight transport in January when it simultaneously charged two heavy-duty electric trucks supplied by China's SANY Trucks alongside four passenger EVs.

Other clean transport companies in Africa have mostly focused on electric motorbikes. Companies such as Kenya's Spiro and Ampersand have integrated renewable energy into parts of their battery-swapping infrastructure, particularly outside major cities. However, they are hybrid systems rather than fully off-grid solar networks designed for heavy trucks.

South Africa's imports of EVs have been rising, but charging infrastructure remains limited and largely concentrated in major cities. Heavy-duty electric trucks face additional hurdles due to high energy requirements and a shortage of high-capacity charging sites, even as the national utility struggles to meet demand.

“Our approach is to build energy-resilient charging hubs that are not dependent on an unstable grid,” Roux said. “By combining solar and storage, we can provide predictable, clean power for fleets.”

Roux said adoption of electric freight technology still faces several risks, including regulatory delays for site approvals, high import duties, truck certification requirements and limited vehicle availability.

“Fleet operators are under pressure to decarbonize, but they need commercially viable solutions,” Roux said. “This investment helps us deploy infrastructure for logistics, mining and long-haul transport. We believe this model can reduce emissions while strengthening energy security.”

The Associated Press’ climate and environmental coverage receives financial support from multiple private foundations. AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP’s standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org.

FILE -A man rides an electric motorcycle from Ampersand on a test drive in Nairobi, Kenya, Jan. 23, 2023. (AP Photo/Brian Inganga, File)

FILE -Workers offload grains from a truck at the Mile 12 Market in Lagos, Nigeria, Feb. 16, 2024. AP Photo/Mansur Ibrahim, File)