Switch off the editor’s digest free of charge
Roula Khalaf, editor of the FT, selects her favorite stories in this weekly newsletter.
Europe’s best-known artificial intelligence start-up Mistral Ai has secured new contracts worth hundreds of million dollars and conducted an upswing in his business, which could help promote a potential fundraiser of USD 1 billion this year.
Paris is based mistral faces intensive competitions of the US and Chinese competitors, but promotes a European move to found regional champions.
According to the people familiar with their finances, the income has been Last round of financing A year ago and on the right track to exceed $ 100 million a year for the first time if it maintains the dynamics of sales.
A relatively small number of large customers drift a large part of this growth. Mistral had closed or was close to the seal of a handful of trading contracts, each of which was worth at least $ 100 million over three to five years.
Company, public and defense customers outside the USA are increasingly looking for alternatives to US technology companies since Donald Trump has returned to the White House.
“There are many European companies that want to reduce their dependence on US providers … There is a growing demand for strategy autonomy,” said Arthur Mensch, Managing Director of Mistral, last month.
This has suggested Mistral, which was rated almost 6 billion euros Last round of financing A year ago to develop an ambitious program to expand your own AI infrastructure, starting with a big data center outside of Paris and working with the Tech and investment groups G42 and MGX based in Abu Dhabi.
In order to finance these efforts, the company, which has collected more than 1 billion USD since it was founded two years ago, considered to collect up to $ 1 billion more, according to people who are familiar with the matter. It had started to recognize potential investors, although a more formal fundraising process is expected to begin later this year, added people.
Mistral refused to comment on the financial performance or financing plans.
The company supported by NVIDIA, which was founded by three former meta- and Google Deepmind researchers, is far behind us rivals such as Openaai and Anthropic both in fundraising and in commercialization.
Mistral’s “open” AI models that can examine and individually adapt customers for their own applications.
The tension between the Trump administration and Europe – as well as a wish by countries around the world to own and operate their own AI infrastructure – could be a blessing for Mistral, which last year generated only tens of million in revenue, according to the people near the company.
The latest contracts are modeled on Mistral contract for EUR 100 million with the French shipping and logistics group CMA CGM. When this deal was announced in April, the CMA -CGM boss Rodolphe Saadé said that companies would work together with “tailor -made” AI systems.
Mistral, who has around 250 employees, has significantly expanded his commercial team in recent months. It has applied a sales model that resembles the US data analysis provider Palantir and employs a team of “Solutions architects” that, like consultants, works with every customer how best to use AI in their business.
This can mean a longer sales process than a typical contract for company software, but a larger potential price.
BNP Paribas, Axa, Stellantis and Veolia are among the current Mistral customers. It is also a partnership with the start-up of European Defense Tech Helsing.
“Sovereignty is not our core business and we are a global company,” said Mensch in May. “But the last 100 days have tripled our business, especially in Europe and outside the USA.”
