Mistral’s Funding Talks

French AI startup Mistral is in talks to raise up to $1 billion in equity from investors, including Abu Dhabi’s MGX fund, according to reports from Bloomberg, citing people familiar with the matter. Mistral is also in discussions with French lenders like Bpifrance SACA to raise hundreds of millions of euros in debt.

Mistral, the maker of the Le Chat chatbot, is a significant player in the European AI landscape, with a focus on open-weight LLMs. The startup has raised $1.19 billion to date at a $6.51 billion post-money valuation, according to PitchBook. Its last fundraise was a Series B in June 2024.

Mistral is already working with MGX, a government-backed $100 billion AI fund, and Nvidia to build Europe’s largest AI data center campus. The UAE has also committed to spending €50 billion on AI projects in France, part of French President Emmanuel Macron’s push for AI sovereignty.