Insider Brief

• French artificial intelligence startup Mistral AI is poised to get a big boost in its valuation, nearly tripling to $6 billion in just six months.
• The Wall Street Journal reports the company is expected to secure approximately $600 million in its latest funding round.
• The round includes continued support from its existing investors, General Catalyst and Lightspeed Venture Partners.

French artificial intelligence startup Mistral AI is poised to significantly boost its valuation, nearly tripling to $6 billion in just six months, according to a recent report by the Wall Street Journal. The company is expected to secure approximately $600 million in its latest funding round, which includes continued support from its existing investors, General Catalyst and Lightspeed Venture Partners.

Arthur Mensch, CEO of Mistral AI, has ambitious plans for the startup and is ready to take on established AI giants of Silicon Valley. “We want to be the most capital-efficient company in the world of AI,” Mensch told the Wall Street Journal. “That’s the reason we exist.”

Mistral models include Mistral 7B, Mixtral 8x7B and Mixtral 8x22B. API-only models include Mistral Large, Mistral Medium and Mistral Small.

In December, Mistral AI raised $415 million in its Series A funding round, which brought its valuation to $2 billion. Earlier this year, the startup was in discussions with investors to raise additional hundreds of millions of dollars, initially seeking a $5 billion valuation. The new funding round marks a substantial leap, reflecting heightened investor confidence and the growing market potential of AI technologies.

In February, Mistral AI entered into a multi-year, $16.3 million partnership with Microsoft. This collaboration aims to commercialize Mistral’s flagship models and enhance its AI development and deployment capabilities. As part of this partnership, Mistral’s large language models (LLMs) are now available on Microsoft’s Azure AI platform, allowing the startup  to promote, sell and distribute its models.

Founded just a year ago by former researchers from DeepMind and Meta AI, Mistral AI has quickly made a name for itself in the competitive AI landscape. The Information reports that Mistral AI has started to generate revenue. Despite its rapid growth and high valuation, Mistral AI did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

The substantial investments pouring into AI startups like Mistral have sparked concerns among some observers about the potential for a tech stock bubble, reminiscent of the dot-com bubble that burst in 2000, Quartz reports. However, experts argue that the current AI boom is fundamentally different and that fears of a bubble burst are unfounded. They point to the tangible advancements and applications of AI technologies as evidence of sustainable growth.