French startup Mistral rolls out app in escalating AI race

Veolia Environnement SA

06/02/2025 15:00

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      France's Mistral launches new app for Gen AI software
    

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      Mistral says its AI chat responds at up to 1,000
words/second
    

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      Says DeepSeek has benefited from its open source
technology 
    

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      Mistral CEO says IPO not planned in the short-term 
    

  
    By Florence Loeve
       PARIS, Feb 6 (Reuters) - Nvidia-backed French startup
Mistral AI rolled out a new app for its generative AI software
on Thursday, hot on the heels of last month's launch of a new AI
assistant by China's DeepSeek.
    The little-known Chinese company rocked global markets by
showing it could go head-to-head with U.S. heavyweights in the
field, while charging much less.
    Paris-based Mistral AI, founded two years ago, says its open
source Le Chat assistant is powered by the world's fastest
inference engines, responding with up to 1,000 words per second.
    Its launch is well-timed, with a focus on alternatives to
OpenAI's ChatGPT and days before Paris hosts an AI summit.
    "The French and the whole world are realising that European
players count and that they provide cutting-edge technology,"
Mistral AI CEO and co-founder Arthur Mensch told Reuters.
    Mistral AI, which is reported to be valued at 5.8 billion
euros ($6.01 billion), won financial backing from AI chip leader
Nvidia  NVDA.O  and is often touted by French President Emmanuel
Macron.
    Despite early success, it has been overshadowed by the
popularity of ChatGPT, which had 200 million weekly active
users, said OpenAI in August, compared with "several million
subscribers" regularly using Le Chat, Mensch said.
    Mensch, 32, said he knows DeepSeek well and was not
surprised by its latest innovation. DeepSeek had benefited from
technology shared by Mistral via open source in 2023, he said.
    "DeepSeek is something we've been waiting for," he said,
adding: "We are a company that builds products on open source
solutions. So whenever there is new open source technology, we
benefit from it."
    Mensch highlighted a need for a European alternative to
Chinese and American offerings, saying that his ultimate goal
was to make AI "more open and more accessible to everyone".
    "There is a cultural dimension to AI, and I think everyone
is starting to realise this. It's also about having European
champions, and that's why we created Mistral," he said.
    Mistral's new chat assistant, previously only available on a
web browser, is the mainstream version of a product also being
offered to businesses.
    The company says it has already signed partnerships with
"several dozen" large companies, including with French water and
waste management group Veolia.
    Mistral AI also announced a partnership with the French jobs
agency earlier in the week and has more in the pipeline with
other European authorities, said Mensch.
    However, that represents a fraction of the partnerships won
by U.S. heavyweights, who are also set to benefit from President
Donald Trump's Stargate project.
    Mensch said Mistral AI, which has raised more than 1 billion
euros to date, was "very well-funded".
    Commenting on speculation about an IPO, he said that it was
"not a short-term ambition at all".
($1 = 0.9651 euros) 

 (Reporting by Florence Loeve; Editing by Dominique Patton and
Alexander Smith)
 ((dominique.patton@thomsonreuters.com;))