NVIDIA-backed AI start-up Mistral raises $2B at a $14B valuation
What's the story
Mistral AI, a French artificial intelligence start-up backed by NVIDIA, has raised €1.7 billion ($2 billion) in its latest funding round. The investment was led by Dutch chip equipment maker ASML, which invested €1.3 billion in the company. With this latest funding round, Mistral's post-money valuation now stands at an impressive €11.7 billion (nearly $14 billion).
Shareholding details
ASML becomes one of Mistral's largest shareholders
ASML's investment makes it one of Mistral's largest shareholders with an 11% stake on a fully diluted basis. The funding round more than doubles Mistral's valuation from the €5.8 billion it achieved during a €600 million funding round last year. Mistral is one of Europe's most competitive tech start-ups and a potential rival to OpenAI and Anthropic. The company has been developing large language models that power AI applications like chatbots.
Future plans
Mistral's reasoning model set to launch soon
Mistral CEO Arthur Mensch had earlier told CNBC that the company is launching its first reasoning model to take on OpenAI and China's DeepSeek. The model is said to be "great at mathematics [and] great at coding." Along with ASML, other investors in this latest funding round include DST Global, Andreessen Horowitz, Bpifrance, General Catalyst, Index Ventures, Lightspeed and NVIDIA.