The Paris-based AI project Mistral AI has raised €385 million in a funding round led by Andreessen Horowitz and Lightspeed Ventures. Bloomberg reports.
The funds will be used to develop open-source software and to create a European competitor to American tech companies.
According to the agency, investors valued the startup at $2 billion. BNP Paribas, former Google CEO Eric Schmidt, and others also participated in the round.
“Since Mistral AI was founded in May, we have followed a clear trajectory: to create a European champion with global ambitions in the field of generative artificial intelligence, based on an open, responsible and decentralised approach to technology,” said the project’s chief executive Arthur Mensh.
The Paris-based founder team included a former DeepMind researcher and Meta alumni Timothée Lacroix and Guillaume Lample. The startup specialises in open-source technologies for AI tools and the development of chatbots. The company plans to open access to its products in early 2024.
In June, Mistral AI raised a European-record €105 million in a seed round of funding.
Earlier, the London-based project for a decentralised compute AI network Gensyn raised $43 million from Andreessen Horowitz, CoinFund and other investors.
