CERN and Mistral Partner to Build Physics Foundation Model

CERN and Mistral have signed a statement of intent establishing a strategic partnership to develop foundation models for scientific discovery, with initial focus on high-energy physics. The collaboration combines CERN’s expertise in fundamental physics and large-scale computing infrastructure with Mistral’s capabilities in training large-scale AI models.

The partnership’s primary objective is creating a Large Physics Model—the first foundation model specifically for collider physics. It will be trained on billions of simulated proton-proton collisions from the Large Hadron Collider and designed to handle multiple tasks: reconstructing particle collisions, identifying particles, flagging unexpected signals, and evaluating detector designs. Currently, LHC analysis relies on sequential specialized algorithms; a unified foundation model could consolidate these functions within a single system.

CERN’s dataset provides ideal conditions for this work: approximately one exabyte of experimental LHC data stored to date, with volume expected to increase tenfold when the HL-LHC begins operations around 2030. This scale and precision offer exceptional opportunities for developing and testing AI systems at the frontier of scientific computing.