French AI startup Mistral is reportedly in discussions to secure up to $1 billion in equity funding, with Abu Dhabi’s MGX fund cited among potential investors. Bloomberg also reports Mistral is seeking hundreds of millions of euros in debt from French lenders, including Bpifrance SACA.
Mistral, known for its Le Chat chatbot and focus on open-weight large language models (LLMs), has already raised $1.19 billion to date, achieving a $6.51 billion post-money valuation as of its June 2024 Series B round. The company is collaborating with MGX, a government-backed $100 billion AI fund, and Nvidia to develop Europe’s largest AI data center campus. This aligns with the UAE’s €50 billion commitment to French AI projects, supporting President Emmanuel Macron’s AI sovereignty initiative.
