Mistral AI raises 600 million euros in its latest funding round

France's Mistral AI has raised €600 million ($643.7 million) in a funding round led by existing investor General Catalyst, it said Tuesday, as artificial intelligence continues to attract the lion's share of technology-focused venture capital funds.

The Series B funding round valued the year-old company at €5.8 billion, according to two sources directly involved in the deal. This represents a significant increase from its €2 billion valuation during its previous funding round in December.

"This new round puts us in a unique position to push the frontier of AI and bring cutting-edge technology into the hands of everyone," said co-founder and CEO Arthur Mensch.

The latest round also included investments from firms such as Lightspeed, Andreessen Horowitz, Cisco Systems and Nvidia, bringing the AI startup's total funding to more than €1 billion.

The runaway success of OpenAI's ChatGPT following its launch in late 2021 has put the spotlight on large language models (LLMs), a technology that underpins generative artificial intelligence products.

The funds will be used to increase computing capacity, recruit workers and expand its international presence, especially in the U.S. The investment includes Microsoft, which is looking to integrate Mistral's AI models into its Azure platform, attracting the attention of the European Union for possible concentrations of power.

Mistral, based in Paris and widely seen as OpenAI's European competitor, said it would use the funds to increase its computing capacity, recruit workers and expand its international presence, particularly in the U.S.

In February, Microsoft invested $16 million in Mistral as part of a partnership to make the company's AI models available through its Azure cloud computing platform.

The association attracted the attention of the European Union, with lawmakers demanding an investigation into what they see as a concentration of power by the tech giant.

Collaboration: Grupo Auge | Reuters (International).