What is Mistral AI? Everything to know about the OpenAI competitor
Mistral AI, the French company behind AI assistant Le Chat and various fundamental models, is officially considered one of the most promising technical startups in France and is perhaps the only European company that could compete with OpenAI. But compared to the valuation of $ 6 billion, the worldwide market share is still relatively low.
However, the recent launch of his chat assistant in Mobile App stores was met with some hype, especially in the home country. “Go and download Le Chat, made by Mistral, instead of chatgpt by OpenAi – or something else,” said French President Emmanuel Macron in a TV interview prior to the AI Action Summit in Paris.
Although this wave of attention can be encouraging, Mistral AI still faces challenges in competing with OpenAI-and thereby keeping his self-definition as “the world’s greenest and leading independent AI-Lab.”
What is Mistral Ai?
Since its foundation in 2023, Mistral Ai has collected considerable amounts of financing with the ambition to “put Frontier AI in the hands of everyone.” Although this is not a direct puncture at OpenAI, the slogan is intended to emphasize the company’s advocacy for openness in AI.
The alternative to chatgpt, chat assistant Le Chat, is now also available on iOS and Android. It reached 1 million downloads in the two weeks after the mobile release, even grabbing the first place in France for free downloads in the iOS App Store.
This comes alongside Mistral Ai’s suite of models, including:
Who are the founders of Mistral Ai?
The three founders of Mistral AI share a background in AI research at large American technology companies with considerable activities in Paris. CEO Arthur Mensch used to work at Google’s DeepMind, while CTO Timothée Lacroix and Chief Scientist Officer Guillaume Lample are former Meta Staff employees.
Co-founder of advisers also include Jean-Charles Samuelian-Werce (also a board member) and Charles Gorintin of starting up the health insurance Alan, as well as former digital minister Cédric O, who caused controversy Because of his previous role.
Are the models of Mistral Ai Open Source?
Not all. Mistral AI distinguishes its most important models, whose weights are not available for commercial purposes, of the free models, for which the weight access offers under the Apache 2.0 license.
Free models include research models such as Mistral Nemo, which was built in collaboration with Nvidia that the startup open in July 2024.
How does Mistral Ai earn money?
Although many of the range of Mistral AI are free or now have free levels, Mistral AI is planning to generate some income from the paid layers of Le Chat. Introduced in February 2025, the pro -plan of Le Chat is priced at $ 14.99 per month.
On the pure B2B side, Mistral AI applies its most important models via APIs with use-based prices. Companies can also license these models, and the company probably also generates a significant part of its income from its strategic partnerships, some of which it emphasizes during the AI top of Paris.
In general, however, the income of Mistral AI is said to be in the eight -digit range, according to several sources.
Which partnerships are Mirtral AI closed?
In 2024, Mistral AI concluded a deal with a Microsoft with a strategic partnership for distributing its AI models via the Azure platform of Microsoft and an investment of € 15 million. The UK’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) quickly concluded that the deal was not eligible for research because of the small size. However, it also led for some criticism In the EU.
In January 2025, Mistral AI signed a deal with the Agence France-Presse (AFP) news agency to ask Chat to reclaim the entire text archive of AFP until 1983.
Mistral AI also led to strategic partnerships with those of France army And work agencyGerman Defense Tech Startup Kolet” IBM” OrangeAnd Stellantis.
How much financing has Mistral AI collected so far?
From February 2025, Mistral AI has so far raised around € 1 billion in capital, around $ 1.04 billion against the current exchange rate. This includes a few debt financing, as well as various stock financing rounds that have been raised closely in succession.
In June 2023, and before it even released its first models, Mistral AI achieved a record of $ 112 million seed round led by Lightspeed Venture Partners. Sources said the seed round at the time – Europe’s greatest ever -Valued the then startup of one months at $ 260 million.
Other investors in this seed round were 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 did it conclude a Serie A of € 385 million (at the time $ 415 million), with a reported rating of $ 2 billion. De Ronde was led by Andreessen Horowitz (A16Z), with the participation of existing Racker light speed, as well as BNP Paribas, CMA-CGM, conviction, Elad Gil, general catalyst and salesforce.
The $ 16.3 million convertible investment that Microsoft made in Mistral AI announced as part of their partnership in February 2024, was presented as a series of A extension, which implies an unprovemented valuation.
In June 2024, Mistral AI then raised € 600 million in a mix of equity and debts (at the time around $ 640 million at the exchange rate). The long -rumed round was led by General Catalyst on a rating of $ 6 billion, with remarkable investors, including Cisco, IBM, Nvidia, Samsung Venture Investment Corporation and others.
What could a mistral AI output look like?
Mistral is ‘not for sale’, Mensch said in January 2025 at the World Economic Forum in Davos. “Naturally, [an IPO is] The plan. ”
This is logical, given how much it has picked up so far: even a large sale may not offer enough multiples for its investors, not to mention worries about sovereignty, depending on the acquiring.
The only way to certainly crush on persistent acquisition breasts is to scale up his income to levels that can even justify his almost $ 6 billion at a distance. Anyway, keep an eye on it.
