Mistral AI Raises $113 Million to Challenge OpenAI from France

A new startup based in Paris, Mistral AI, has raised $113 million just a month after its inception, with the aim of competing with OpenAI in the development, training, and implementation of large language models and generative AI. Mistral AI’s founders, who hail from both Google DeepMind and Meta, have pledged to focus on enterprises and open-source solutions to tackle the challenge of making AI useful. Mistral AI plans to release text-based generative AI models by 2024. The round was led by Lightspeed Venture Partners, with participation from several other funds and investors. Mistral AI’s co-founder and CEO, Arthur Mensch, highlighted the company’s commitment to open-source, stating that their future models will be built using publicly available data to avoid any legal issues. The company also believes that this approach will facilitate tactical advantages for their models’ security. While AI remains more often used in specific cases, Mistral AI wants to develop simple tools for product creation, which they envision could appeal primarily to enterprise customers. The position of AI and the stability of AI applications were also raised as potential issues in investing in a company without products or customers. However, the fact that AI startups like Mistral AI are attracting VC funding shows this space is still growing, with potential for startups and larger companies to play to their strengths.