From Bloomberg, June 11:
- Buzzy French startup closes €600 million investment round
- Nvidia, Cisco and Samsung join slate of prominent VC backers
Mistral AI has raised €600 million ($644 million) from a slew of financial and tech investors as the French artificial intelligence startup starts to take on bigger global players such as OpenAI.
The investment gives the company, formed in early 2023, a €5.8 billion valuation, according to a person familiar with the terms, who asked not to be identified discussing private information.
Venture capital firm General Catalyst led the round, which included a number of prior investors such as Andreessen Horowitz and Lightspeed Venture Partners, the company said in a statement on Tuesday. Corporate backers including Nvidia Corp., Samsung Venture Investment Corp., Cisco Systems Inc. and International Business Machines Corp. also joined.
Mistral is France’s prized AI champion, and it’s attracted more than €1 billion in investment in the last year, and announced partnerships with Microsoft Corp. and other US firms to distribute its models. Chief Executive Officer Arthur Mensch said in the statement that the newest financing “guarantees the company’s continued independence, which remains fully under the founders’ control.”....
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