Mistral and Microsoft strike AI partnership
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The news: French AI start-up, Mistral, has inked a partnership with Microsoft as the tech giant looks to expand its presence in the AI space beyond its deep connection with OpenAI.
The numbers: The financial details of the deal have not yet been disclosed. In a €400 million funding round for the 10-month-old startup in December, Mistral was valued at €2 billion. To date, Microsoft has invested around USD13 billion into US AI giant, OpenAI.
The context: According to the Financial Times, Microsoft will take a minor stake in Mistral and help to bring its AI models to market. Mistral’s large language models, the technology used to drive generative AI products, are open-source, which means that its technical details will be made public. This contrasts with OpenAI, whose products are built in a black-box environment.
The AI startup also made two new product announcements on Monday; the release of its most advanced language model ‘Mistral Large’ which will be made available through Microsoft’s Azure AI, its first distribution partner; and unveiling its new conversational assistant, le Chat Mistral.
