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French Startup Mistral AI, Backed by Microsoft, Raises $645M at a $6B Valuation to Compete with OpenAI in the AI Race

French tech startup Mistral AI has raised €600 million ($645 million), valuing the company at approximately €5.8 billion ($6.2 billion). The funding round, led by General Catalyst and including existing investors, underscores the ongoing investment surge in the artificial intelligence sector.

Mistral AI, just over a year old, aims to compete with OpenAI by developing large language models (LLMs) for applications like chatbots. Co-founder and CEO Arthur Mensch expressed gratitude to investors on social media, stating: “This will accelerate our roadmap as we continue to bring frontier AI into everyone’s hands.”

Mistral’s initial seed round was €105 million, and the company recently received investment from Microsoft, highlighting the growing collaboration between European startups and U.S. tech giants.

James Dargan
About the author
James Dargan

James Dargan is a writer and researcher at The AI Insider. His focus is on the AI startup ecosystem and he writes articles on the space that have a tone accessible to the average reader.

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