OpenAI Rival Mistral AI Closes $415M Funding Round Led By Andreessen Horowitz

French startup Mistral AI raised $415 million, or €385 million, as part of a series A funding round.

Lightspeed Venture Partners and Andreessen Horowitz were among the main investors. Salesforce CRM, BNP Paribas BNPQF, CMA-CGM, General Catalyst, Mixer Labs co-founder Elad Gil, and venture firm Conviction also joined the effort.

Bloomberg estimates that this amounts to a $2 billion valuation for the company.

Less than six months ago, Mistral AI—a European competitor to OpenAI—raised a $112 million seed round led by former employees of Google’s DeepMind and Meta. The company is developing foundational models and a business platform with an open technology focus.

Also Read: European Union Inches Closer To Regulating AI Technologies Like ChatGPT, Google Bard

Mistral AI also had a significant influence on the direction of the EU’s AI Act debate. The company advocates for a complete exemption for foundational models, arguing that businesses developing products directly used by end users and use cases should be subject to regulation.

One company was noticeably absent from Mistral AI’s lineup of big-name investors: Microsoft Inc. MSFT.

Sam Altman has referred to OpenAI and Redmond, Washington-based Microsoft as having “the best bromance in tech.”

Microsoft has invested around $13 billion in OpenAI. Since 2019, the companies have collaborated to develop cutting-edge artificial intelligence systems that they think could be the most significant technological advancements in a generation.

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