Mistral AI
Also known as Mistral
Paris AI lab building open-weight and commercial language models.
Investors include Lightspeed Venture Partners, Andreessen Horowitz and 12 others. Run by Arthur Mensch (CEO).
Investors
- Lightspeed Venture Partners
€105M seed round, June 2023 · since Jun 2023 1
- Andreessen Horowitz
€385M round, December 2023 · since Dec 2023 1
- Salesforce
€385M round, December 2023 · since Dec 2023 1
- BNP Paribas
€385M round, December 2023 · since Dec 2023 1
- MicrosoftOrganization
$16M, February 2024 · since Feb 2024 1
9 more: General Catalyst, Nvidia, Bpifrance…
- General Catalyst
led the €600M round (€468M equity, €132M debt), June 2024 4
- NvidiaOrganization
existing investor; in the €1.7B Series C (September 2025) 2
- Bpifrance
existing investor; in the €1.7B Series C (September 2025) 2
- ASML
led the Series C: €1.3B, about 11% · since Sep 2025 1
- DST Global
in the €1.7B Series C 2
- Index Ventures
in the €1.7B Series C 2
- Samsung Electronics
led the €3B Series D; stake not disclosed · since Sep 2026 3
- EQT
co-led the Series D through its Scaleup Europe Fund · since Sep 2026 3
- PSG Equity
existing investor; co-led the Series D 3
Led by
- Arthur Mensch
CEO · since Apr 2023 1
Founded by
- Arthur Mensch
- Guillaume Lample
- Timothée Lacroix
People
- Guillaume LampleChief Scientist
- Timothée LacroixCTO
Partners
- NvidiaOrganization
developing open frontier AI models · since Mar 2026 1
- MicrosoftOrganization
partnership expanded in a multibillion-dollar deal, July 2026 1
- Mistral AI was founded in Paris in April 2023 by Arthur Mensch, Guillaume Lample and Timothée Lacroix.
- The three met at École polytechnique and came from Google DeepMind and Meta.
- ASML led its 2025 Series C and holds about 11%.
- Samsung Electronics led a €3 billion Series D in September 2026.
Why it matters
- It is Europe's most highly valued AI lab, funded by chip, cloud and industrial companies as well as venture firms.
- Founded
- April 2023, Paris1
- Founders
- Arthur Mensch (CEO), Guillaume Lample (Chief Scientist), Timothée Lacroix (CTO)1
- Headquarters
- Paris, France1
- Employees
- 1,000+ (2026)1
- Valuation
- More than €21 billion post-money (Series D, September 2026)3
Who owns and runs it
Investors include Lightspeed Venture Partners, Andreessen Horowitz and 12 others. Run by Arthur Mensch (CEO).
Investors
- Lightspeed Venture Partners
€105M seed round, June 2023 · since Jun 2023 1
- Andreessen Horowitz
€385M round, December 2023 · since Dec 2023 1
- Salesforce
€385M round, December 2023 · since Dec 2023 1
- BNP Paribas
€385M round, December 2023 · since Dec 2023 1
- MicrosoftOrganization
$16M, February 2024 · since Feb 2024 1
9 more: General Catalyst, Nvidia, Bpifrance…
- General Catalyst
led the €600M round (€468M equity, €132M debt), June 2024 4
- NvidiaOrganization
existing investor; in the €1.7B Series C (September 2025) 2
- Bpifrance
existing investor; in the €1.7B Series C (September 2025) 2
- ASML
led the Series C: €1.3B, about 11% · since Sep 2025 1
- DST Global
in the €1.7B Series C 2
- Index Ventures
in the €1.7B Series C 2
- Samsung Electronics
led the €3B Series D; stake not disclosed · since Sep 2026 3
- EQT
co-led the Series D through its Scaleup Europe Fund · since Sep 2026 3
- PSG Equity
existing investor; co-led the Series D 3
Led by
- Arthur Mensch
CEO · since Apr 2023 1
Funding rounds
The line under a date fills as it gets older: empty when new, full at 2 years.
-
Seed: €105M1
Lightspeed Venture Partners, Eric Schmidt, Xavier Niel, JCDecaux.
-
€385M at over €2B1
Andreessen Horowitz, BNP Paribas, Salesforce.
-
Microsoft: $16M1
-
€600M at €5.8B, led by General Catalyst4
€468M equity plus €132M debt; Lightspeed, a16z, Bpifrance, Nvidia, Salesforce, Samsung and IBM took part.
-
Series C: €1.7B at €11.7B post-money, led by ASML2
With DST Global, a16z, Bpifrance, General Catalyst, Index Ventures, Lightspeed and NVIDIA.
-
$830M of debt for data centres1
For new data centres near Paris and in Sweden.
-
Series D: €3B at more than €21B post-money3
Led by Samsung Electronics, co-led by EQT's Scaleup Europe Fund and PSG Equity.
Connections
Founded by
- Arthur Mensch
- Guillaume Lample
- Timothée Lacroix
People
- Guillaume LampleChief Scientist
- Timothée LacroixCTO
Partners
- NvidiaOrganization
developing open frontier AI models · since Mar 2026 1
- MicrosoftOrganization
partnership expanded in a multibillion-dollar deal, July 2026 1
Links
Sources
- Mistral AI (Wikipedia) (opens en.wikipedia.org)
- Mistral AI raises 1.7B€ to accelerate technological progress with AI (Mistral AI, September 9, 2025) (opens mistral.ai)
- Orrick advises Mistral in its €3B Series D at €21B post-money valuation (Orrick, September 8, 2026) (opens orrick.com)
- Mistral AI value surges to nearly €6bn after latest fundraise (Silicon Republic, June 11, 2024) (opens siliconrepublic.com)
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