Former Startup Emmi AI

40 New Jobs at Linz-Based AI Company Following Multi-Million Deal

Johannes Brandstetter is a co-founder of the Linz-based startup Emmi AI—and is now vice president of AI research at the French company Mistral.(Bild: Horst Einöder/Flashpictures)

Following its multimillion-euro sale to the French tech conglomerate Mistral, the Linz-based former startup Emmi is looking for new employees. And the AI specialists are working on models designed to speed up crash tests—and thus car production—by about a third.

It was a mega-deal: In the spring, French tech giant Mistral acquired the Linz-based AI startup Emmi AI for a mid-three-digit million amount—as reported by the “Krone.” Unlike many other sales to foreign companies, however, this acquisition isn’t leading to cutbacks or cost-saving measures, but rather to expansion: “We’re looking to hire 40 new employees in Linz,” says Emmi founder Johannes Brandstetter. The AI specialists moved into their new office in the provincial capital just last week.

“Interest from all European automakers”
The reason for the growth: The researchers from Linz specialize in replacing physical simulations with artificial intelligence—which is expected to speed up many industrial processes. Brandstetter gives an example: “It takes three and a half years to build a car in Europe. Thirty percent of that time is spent on crash tests. We’re currently building models for that purpose.”

In other words, the Linz-based team aims to use AI to make crash tests more efficient, so that they take up only two or three percent of a car’s production time, instead of nearly a third as before. The first model is scheduled to be ready this fall. “There’s interest from all European automakers,” says Brandstetter.

Government as a Flagship Investor
For the former startup Emmi AI, the sale to the French company is an opportunity to become a world leader in physics simulations. And for the new French owner, Mistral, the deal opens up the possibility of entering this market. On Wednesday, Minister of Economic Affairs Wolfgang Hattmannsdorfer and State Secretary Alexander Pröll (both ÖVP) visited the Linz-based company. Their conclusion: The government intends to lead the way as a flagship investor in the field of artificial intelligence and promote AI in industrial applications.