by The French artificial intelligence startup Mistral AI closed a funding round worth around $415
million as it strives to be the EU’s rival to OpenAI and accelerates the EU AI race.
French artificial intelligence (AI) startup Mistral AI has announced it raised €385 million ($415 million) in its latest funding round to develop its technology and open-source software.
Andreessen Horowitz and the company’s initial backers, Lightspeed Ventures, led the round, which closed on Dec. 11.
This follows a previous funding round in June where Mistral raised $113 million in seed funding. The company is currently valued at around $2 billion.
Mistral AI focuses on open-source technology for generative AI tools, chatbot development and customizable features. It aims to make its products available to the general public in early 2024.
The company was founded in March by former leads at Google’s DeepMind and Meta (Facebook and Instagram’s parent company).
Arthur Mensch, Mistral AI’s CEO, commented on the latest funding round saying:
“Since the creation of Mistral AI in May, we have been pursuing a clear trajectory: that of creating a
European champion with a global vocation in generative artificial intelligence,
based on an open, responsible and decentralized approach to technology.”
Additional investors in the round included Salesforce, Bpifrance and Eric Schmidt, among others.
Cointelegraph contacted Mistral AI for additional comments but hasn’t yet received a response.
