Paris-Based Mistral AI Becomes a $2B Unicorn in Latest Funding Round, France

Paris-based artificial intelligence startup Mistral AI has achieved unicorn status in the AI race after securing €385 million (approximately $415 million) in its second funding round within seven months. Led by investors such as Andreessen-Horowitz and LightSpeed Ventures, this funding round has propelled Mistral AI’s valuation to approximately $2 billion, positioning it among the top AI companies globally. The company’s success reflects the sustained interest in AI companies, driven by the growing enthusiasm for generative AI tools like OpenAI’s ChatGPT, Google’s Bard, and Anthropic’s Claude. Mistral AI aims to establish itself as a strong European contender against established players like OpenAI. The company recently launched beta access to its platform service, la plateforme, which offers chat endpoints designed to generate text based on textual instructions. With the release of its AI model Mixtral 8x7B, Mistral AI claims to outperform existing benchmarks set by Meta’s Llama 2 70B and OpenAI’s GPT3.5. The model, currently available in beta access, is released under the Apache 2.0 license. With its innovative approach and significant funding, Mistral AI is poised to make a significant impact in the AI industry.