The company's first generative AI model for code, Codestral, has a restrictive license as its outputs can’t be used for commercial activities. Mistral AI also offers a chat assistant called Le Chat and has distribution partnerships with cloud providers, including Microsoft Azure. Other investors in the startup include Lightspeed Venture Partners, Andreessen Horowitz, Nvidia, Samsung Venture Investment Corporation, Salesforce Venture, and many others. The company's CEO, Arthur Mensch, stated that the new funding round ensures the company's continued independence and positions it to push the frontier of AI technology.
Key takeaways:
- Mistral AI has closed its Series B funding round, securing €600 million (around $640 million) in a mix of equity and debt, led by General Catalyst.
- The startup is now valued at $6 billion and is working on foundational AI models to rival the best performing models today.
- Mistral AI has released pre-trained and fine-tuned models under an open-source license and also offers proprietary models designed to be repackaged as API-first products.
- Other investors in the startup include Lightspeed Venture Partners, Andreessen Horowitz, Nvidia, Samsung Venture Investment Corporation, Salesforce Venture among others.