A little more than seven months after its creation, the French start-up Mistral AI could soon be valued at 2 billion euros. According to the Financial Times, the French start-up specializing in generative artificial intelligence should raise 400 million euros. The British business daily specifies that the agreement, which values Mistral AI at 2 billion euros, should be signed shortly, with an announcement planned for next week. At the start of the week, Mistral AI had already carried out a record first fundraising of 105 million euros last June.
Earlier in the week, Bloomberg had mentioned a fundraising of 450 million euros. The deal would include more than €325 million in equity, with the prestigious American fund Andreessen Horowitz alone investing €200 million. For their part, the American giants Nvidia and Salesforce would contribute 120 million euros in convertible debt. According to the Financial Times, the French bank BNP Paribas and the American venture capital company General Catalyst would also be part of this funding round.
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Co-founded by three French AI researchers who worked at the American Gafa, Arthur Mensch, Timothée Lacroix and Guillaume Lample, Mistral AI aims to create from Europe a new player with a global vocation in generative AI. A booming sector, as illustrated by the ChatGPT phenomenon. The French start-up released its very first language model last September, a few months ahead of its roadmap. One of its co-founders, Arthur Mensch, assured the Financial Times last October that their technology was more efficient and less expensive than those developed by its largest American competitors, ChatGPT and Bard in the lead.