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Mistral AI , the French company behind AI supporter Le Chat and several foundational models , is officially regarded as one ofFrance ’s most promising tech startupsand isarguably the only European fellowship that could compete with OpenAI . But compared to its $ 6 billion evaluation , its global market place contribution is still relatively lowly .
However , the late launch of its schmoose supporter on peregrine app storage was met with some ballyhoo , peculiarly in its home country . “ Go and download Le Chat , which is made by Mistral , rather than ChatGPT by OpenAI — or something else , ” French president Emmanuel Macron saidin a idiot box interviewahead of the AI Action Summit in Paris .
While this wave of attending may be encouraging , Mistral AI still face challenge in contend with the likes of OpenAI — and in doing so while keep up with its self - definition as “ the human beings ’s green and leading independent AI science laboratory . ”
What is Mistral AI?
Mistral AI has lift significant amount of support since its creation in 2023 with the aspiration to “ put frontier AI in the hand of everyone . ” While this is n’t a direct thrusting at OpenAI , the slogan is meant to highlight the society ’s advocacy for nakedness in AI .
Its alternative to ChatGPT , gossip help Le Chat , is now alsoavailable on Io and Android . It reached1 million downloadsin the two weeks following its mobile release , even grab France ’s top office for detached downloads on the iOS App Store .
This comes in addition to Mistral AI ’s suite of models , which include :
In March 2025 , the companyintroduced Mistral OCR , an ocular persona realization ( OCR ) API that can turn any PDF into a schoolbook file to make it easier for AI role model to take in .
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Who are Mistral AI’s founders?
Mistral AI ’s three founder portion out a background in AI research at major U.S. tech troupe with pregnant operations in Paris . chief executive officer Arthur Mensch used to work at Google ’s DeepMind , while CTO Timothée Lacroix and main scientist ship’s officer Guillaume Lample are former Meta staffers .
Co - founding advisers also includeJean - Charles Samuelian - Werve(also a board member ) and Charles Gorintin from health insurance policy startup Alan , as well as former digital pastor Cédric O , whichcaused controversydue to his previous role .
Are Mistral AI’s models open source?
Not all of them . Mistral AI differentiates its premier models , whoseweightsare not available for commercial-grade purposes , from its devoid models , for which it provides weight admission under the Apache 2.0 license .
Free models let in inquiry model such as Mistral NeMo , which was built in collaboration with Nvidia that the startupopen - sourcedin July 2024 .
How does Mistral AI make money?
While many of Mistral AI ’s oblation are free ornow have liberal tier , Mistral AI be after to take some tax revenue from Le Chat ’s pay grade . Introduced in February 2025 , Le Chat ’s Pro program is priced at $ 14.99 a month .
On the strictly B2B side , Mistral AI monetizes its premier models through APIs with usage - based pricing . Enterprises can also certify these model , and the caller belike also generates a significant share of its revenue from its strategical partnerships , some of which it highlightedduring the Paris AI Summit .
Overall , however , Mistral AI ’s revenue is reportedly still in the eight - digit range , harmonize to multiple sources .
What partnerships has Mistral AI closed?
In January 2025 , Mistral AIsigned a deal with press agency Agence France - Presse(AFP ) to let confabulate query the AFP ’s full text archive date back to 1983 .
Mistral AI also secured strategical partnerships with France’sarmyandjob agency , ship giant CMA , German defense tech startupHelsing , IBM , Orange , andStellantis .
How much funding has Mistral AI raised to date?
As of February 2025 , Mistral AI raised around € 1 billion in capital to date , or so $ 1.04 billion at the current interchange rate . This include some debt financing , as well as several equity funding rounds arouse in secretive succession .
In June 2023 , and before it even release its first models , Mistral AI raise arecord $ 112 million cum roundled by Lightspeed Venture Partners . Sources at the metre enounce the seed round — Europe ’s expectant ever — assess the then - one - calendar month - older inauguration at $ 260 million .
Other investors in this seed round of drinks included Bpifrance , Eric Schmidt , Exor Ventures , First Minute Capital , Headline , JCDecaux Holding , La Famiglia , LocalGlobe , Motier Ventures , Rodolphe Saadé , Sofina , and Xavier Niel .
Only six months later , it closeda Series A of € 385 million($415 million at the metre ) , at a reported rating of $ 2 billion . The round was led by Andreessen Horowitz ( a16z ) , with involvement from existing backer Lightspeed , as well as BNP Paribas , CMA - CGM , Conviction , Elad Gil , General Catalyst , and Salesforce .
The$16.3 million transformable investmentthat Microsoft made in Mistral AI as part of their partnership harbinger in February 2024 was presented as a Series A extension , implying an unaltered valuation .
In June 2024 , Mistral AI then raised€600 million in a mix of equity and debt(around $ 640 million at the interchange pace at the time ) . Thelong - rumour roundwas led by General Catalyst at a $ 6 billion rating , with celebrated investors , include Cisco , IBM , Nvidia , Samsung Venture Investment Corporation , and others .
What could a Mistral AI exit look like?
Mistral is “ not for sale,”Mensch said in January 2025 at the World Economic Forum in Davos . “ Of course , [ an IPO is ] the plan . ”
This makes sense , given how much the inauguration has raised so far : Even a large cut-rate sale may not provide in high spirits enough multiples for its investors , not to mention sovereignty concerns depending on the merchant bank .
However , the only way to definitely squash persistent acquisition hearsay is to scale its revenue to stratum that could even remotely excuse its nearly $ 6 billion evaluation . Either style , stay tuned .
This story was in the beginning publish on February 28 , 2025 and will be on a regular basis updated .
