French AI start-up Mistral is in talks to raise $1B
What's the story
French artificial intelligence (AI) start-up Mistral is in talks to raise up to $1 billion in equity. The funding round could involve several investors, including Abu Dhabi's MGX fund, as per Bloomberg. In addition to equity financing, Mistral is also said to be negotiating with French lenders such as Bpifrance SACA for hundreds of millions of dollars in debt.
Fundraising
The start-up has raised $1.19B so far
Mistral, the company behind the Le Chat chatbot, is a major player in the European AI space. The start-up specializes in open-weight large language models (LLMs). So far, it has raised $1.19 billion at a post-money valuation of $6.51 billion, PitchBook data shows. Its last funding round was a Series B round held in June 2024.
Partnerships
UAE has pledged $58B for AI projects in France
Mistral has already started working with MGX, a government-backed $100 billion AI fund, and NVIDIA. The three are collaborating to build Europe's largest AI data center campus. The UAE has also pledged $58 billion for AI projects in France. This is part of French President Emmanuel Macron's push for AI sovereignty in Europe.