Mistral AI
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Investors
Founders
About
Mistral AI is a Paris-based foundation model company founded in April 2023 by Arthur Mensch (formerly Google DeepMind), Guillaume Lample, and Timothee Lacroix (both formerly Meta) 1. The three co-founders met during their studies at Ecole Polytechnique 1. Mistral builds and deploys large language models, positioning itself as Europe’s leading AI company with a valuation of $14 billion 2.
Funding History
| Date | Round | Amount | Lead | Co-investors |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jun 2023 | Seed | $113M (€105M) | Lightspeed Venture Partners | Redpoint, Index Ventures, Eric Schmidt, Xavier Niel, JCDecaux, Bpifrance, First Minute Capital, LocalGlobe, Exor Ventures 1 |
| Dec 2023 | Series A | $415M (€385M) | Andreessen Horowitz | BNP Paribas, Salesforce 3 |
| Jun 2024 | Series B | $640M (€600M) | General Catalyst | Lightspeed, Andreessen Horowitz, Nvidia, Samsung, Salesforce Ventures, BNP Paribas, Bpifrance, Cisco, IBM, SV Angel 4 |
| Sep 2025 | Series C | $2B (€1.7B) | ASML | DST Global, Andreessen Horowitz, Bpifrance, General Catalyst, Index Ventures, Lightspeed, Nvidia 2 |
What Investors Say
ASML CEO Christophe Fouquet on leading the Series C: “ASML is proud to enter a strategic partnership with Mistral AI, and to be lead investor in this funding round. The collaboration between Mistral AI and ASML aims to generate clear benefits for ASML customers through innovative products and solutions enabled by AI” 2.
What Founders Say
Arthur Mensch on the ASML partnership: “This investment brings together two technology leaders operating in the same value chain. We have the ambition to help ASML and its numerous partners solve current and future engineering challenges through AI, and ultimately to advance the full semiconductor and AI value chain” 2.
Arthur Mensch on company independence: “We are not for sale. We left big US tech to create a company in Europe, to show that Europe had something to say. That’s still the project and so the independence we have is something that we value dearly” 5.
Sources
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TechCrunch, “France’s Mistral AI blows in with a $113M seed round at a $260M valuation to take on OpenAI,” June 13, 2023. https://techcrunch.com/2023/06/13/frances-mistral-ai-blows-in-with-a-113m-seed-round-at-a-260m-valuation-to-take-on-openai/↩↩↩
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Mistral AI, “Mistral AI raises 1.7B€ to accelerate technological progress with AI,” September 2025. https://mistral.ai/news/mistral-ai-raises-1-7-b-to-accelerate-technological-progress-with-ai↩↩↩↩
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TechCrunch, “Mistral AI, a Paris-based OpenAI rival, closed its $415 million funding round,” December 11, 2023. https://techcrunch.com/2023/12/11/mistral-ai-a-paris-based-openai-rival-closed-its-415-million-funding-round/↩
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TechCrunch, “Paris-based AI startup Mistral AI raises $640M,” June 11, 2024. https://techcrunch.com/2024/06/11/paris-based-ai-startup-mistral-ai-raises-640-million/↩
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Fortune, “French AI champion Mistral isn’t for sale, CEO Mensch says,” January 21, 2025. https://fortune.com/europe/2025/01/21/french-ai-champion-mistral-isnt-for-sale-ceo-mensch-davos/↩