Updated on Dec 22, 2023
1. Mistral AI: 22 workers, 7 months of life and a valuation of 2,000M€ 🦄🦄
This week we were surprised by the announcement of this French Startup, specialized in generative Artificial Intelligence generation 🧠 and that made public a financing round of around 400M€, raising its total valuation above 2,000M€ in just seven months since its birth. This milestone means collecting a unicorn per quarter 🦄🦄 and is on par with legends like Uber, TikTok, or SpaceX in terms of growth speed and valuation. 💸🚀
Some of the significant data of this new player in the major leagues are as follows:
👨💼💡 A small but great team: It was founded in Paris last May by former workers of Meta and Google and has the strong support of Eric Schmitd (former CEO of Google), Cédric O (former French minister), investment funds such as Lightspeed Venture Partners, financial institutions such as BNP Paribas, and technology companies such as Salesforce or Nvidia. No joke. 🤑🔝
💡💰100 Million for an idea: This profile of heavyweights allowed them to raise more than 100 Million Euros with just a document for investors, becoming one of the most substantial preseed rounds we remember.
🌐🔓 Open Source approach: One of the characteristics of this model is that it focuses on open-source code, with no usage or content restrictions and is trained with 7,000M parameters. It enters the war with ChatGPT but with lower computing requirements, which can be a competitive advantage.
🏛️⚔️ A scuffle with European regulation: Despite having the support of the Elysee in defending a more favorable regulation for the development of Artificial Intelligence, Europe is making moves in terms of regulation and could become a threat to the competitiveness of European companies compared to other countries with more lenient legislation.
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