Mistral AI is a rising star from France that’s quickly grabbing attention as one of Europe’s most promising tech startups. It’s the company behind Le Chat, an AI chat assistant, and several powerful AI models. People often compare it to OpenAI, but Mistral still has a smaller slice of the global AI market.
That said, in France, Mistral’s chat assistant made a splash when it launched on mobile app stores — so much so that even French President Emmanuel Macron encouraged people to try Le Chat over ChatGPT ahead of a major AI summit. That’s a big deal and shows how much hope is riding on this homegrown AI project.
But the journey isn’t easy. Mistral wants to compete with giants like OpenAI while staying true to its promise of being “the world’s greenest and most independent AI lab.” A tall order, for sure.
Who Are They?
Founded in 2023, Mistral AI is the brainchild of three researchers with strong backgrounds in big U.S. tech companies. The CEO, Arthur Mensch, once worked at Google DeepMind, while the CTO Timothée Lacroix and chief scientist Guillaume Lample come from Meta. They’ve brought together a talented team with global experience but a European base.
What Does Mistral AI Offer?
Mistral AI has released several AI models:
- Mistral Large 2 — their main large language model.
- Pixtral Large — a multimodal model that works with images and text.
- Mistral Medium 3 — designed for efficient performance, especially for coding and STEM-related tasks.
- Devstral — an open-source coding AI you can use commercially.
- Codestral — an earlier coding AI model, but with restrictions on commercial use.
- Les Ministraux — models optimized for phones and edge devices.
- Mistral Saba — focused on the Arabic language.
- And more, including an OCR API that helps convert PDFs into text, making AI work easier.
Are Their Models Open Source?
Some are, and some aren’t. Mistral keeps its top-tier models closed for commercial use but offers free access to other models under open licenses. For example, their research model Mistral NeMo, built with Nvidia, was open-sourced in 2024.
How Does Mistral AI Make Money?
While many Mistral products are free or have free tiers, they have a paid plan for Le Chat Pro that costs $14.99 a month. For businesses, they offer access to premium models through APIs and licenses, charging based on usage. Plus, strategic partnerships add to their revenue.
Still, Mistral’s revenue is modest compared to its $6 billion valuation—somewhere in the eight-figure range for now.
Who Are Their Partners?
Mistral has scored some impressive deals, including:
- A partnership with Microsoft to distribute models on Azure, along with a €15 million investment.
- A collaboration with Agence France-Presse (AFP) to let their AI search AFP’s archives dating back decades.
- Deals with France’s army, shipping giant CMA, German defense tech Helsing, IBM, Orange, Stellantis, and others.
- Plans to help build a new AI Campus near Paris with NVIDIA, UAE investors, and France’s investment bank Bpifrance.
How Much Funding Have They Raised?
A lot. Mistral has raised over €1 billion (about $1.04 billion) since 2023:
- A record-breaking $112 million seed round before they even released a model.
- A $415 million Series A just six months later, pushing their valuation to $2 billion.
- Another €600 million round in mid-2024, led by big names like General Catalyst, valuing the company at $6 billion.
- Investors include Lightspeed, Andreessen Horowitz, BNP Paribas, Cisco, IBM, Nvidia, Samsung, and more.
What’s Next for Mistral AI?
Mistral’s CEO has made it clear: they’re not interested in selling anytime soon. An IPO looks like the plan to grow even bigger and prove their worth. For now, they need to keep scaling revenue and building real impact to justify their huge valuation.
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