Mistral AI is a French Artificial Intelligence-focused startup founded just over a month ago. Although it does not yet sell any product and its website is under construction, it has already obtained 105 million euros in financing, according to the Financial Times. And some of the investors are heavyweights in the tech industry. Thanks to these funds and the prestige of those who have provided them, the company already has a valuation of 240 million euros. Are we witnessing the first signs of an artificial intelligence bubble?
Mistral AI is an initiative led by three thirty-somethings. One of them is Arthur Mensch, a former DeepMind researcher, a company that has been working for more than a decade on Artificial Intelligence that was acquired by Google in 2014. The other two are Guillaume Lample and Timothée Lacroix, both former employees of the focused division. in Meta AI.
The main objective of Mistral AI is to be the European alternative that competes against OpenAI generating an open source artificial intelligence. According to its founders, this European company will build models using data that is public to avoid legal problems. In addition, users will be able to contribute their own data sets.
"The benefits of using open source can outweigh the potential for misuse," Mensch explained to the TechCrunch portal, where he also highlighted that his desire is to offer AI-based tools focused on creativity.
The fact that the project is still in its embryonic phase is evident when looking at the company's website, which currently still consists of just a header and three lines of text. However, the company has broken the absolute record for funds achieved in a first round of financing in the technology sector at a European level, says Dealroom.
The investment round has been led by the investment fund Lightspeed Venture Partners, and among the rest of the participants are the French investment banks Bpifrance, JCDecaux Holding or Exor Ventures; or Eric Schmidht, the former CEO of Google.
The Financial Times has published that the Mistral AI team has already started working on its first product and they hope it can see the light of day early next year.
