Microsoft has announced an investment and partnership with French AI startup Mistral AI, aiming to diversify its AI offerings beyond OpenAI. With a €15 million investment into the €2.1 billion company, Microsoft plans to integrate
On Monday, Microsoft President Brad Smith emphasized that the agreement marks a significant indication of the company’s support for European technology innovation.
“I really think this day is one of the most important days in terms of Microsoft’s technology support for Europe,” Smith told CNBC at the Mobile World Congress tech conference in Barcelona, Spain.
Mistral’s large language models into Azure’s cloud platform, marking Mistral as the second company after OpenAI to achieve this. This collaboration will also promote Mistral’s multilingual conversational assistant, “Le Chat,” expanding its reach to new global markets.
“What we’re fundamentally agreeing to a long-term partnership with Mistral AI so that they can train and deploy their next generation models for AI on our AI data centres, our infrastructure, effective immediately,” said Smith.
Smith also stated that it was crucial for Microsoft to demonstrate that their focus extends beyond just Microsoft technology and American products, highlighting the role of the partnership as a catalyst for technology, innovation, and growth in Europe. He also mentioned his belief that Europe desires, needs, and merits a broad spectrum of offerings.
Featured image: Credit: CNBC
