OpenAI rival Mistral nears $3b valuation

The news: French AI startup Mistral AI is close to completing a €450 million ($737 million) funding round, valuing the OpenAI rival at around USD2 billion ($3 billion), unnamed sources told Bloomberg.

The numbers: The deal includes more than €325 million in equity from investors. Andreessen Horowitz is in talks to lead the round with a €200 million investment, with Nvidia and Salesforce expected to contribute another €120 million in convertible debt.

The context: Like OpenAI, Mistral AI makes open-source software that powers generative AI tools. The startup, which is less than a year old, was founded by former DeepMind and Meta scientists. It raised an initial USD113 million in June, and as part of the latest deal, its three co-founders have agreed to sell more than €1 million each in equity as part of the transaction terms that Bloomberg reviewed.