French AI startup Mistral valued at over 21 billion euros after latest funding

Mistral announced Tuesday that it had raised three billion euros ($3.5 billion) in what it described as the largest-ever European tech fundraising, valuing the French AI firm at over 21 billion euros. The startup, which is considered Europe's leading AI model developer, said the funding round led by chip giant Samsung would accelerate its research and help it to expand internationally. The company's notional valuation has nearly doubled since a funding round exactly a year ago. While still an upstart compared to the AI giants OpenAI or Anthropic, Mistral says it is carving a niche by offering models that companies can run themselves with their own data. Read morePalantir CEO Alex Karp says French restrictions on US software are ‘backfiring’ "This round means we can move faster on R&D, products, infrastructure and keep giving organisations the ability to run AI at scale, on their own terms," Mistral's chief executive and co-founder Arthur Mensch said in a statement. "Organisations want to industrialise AI inside systems that are already complex: their own data, their own tools, their own compliance constraints." Mistral said it had secured the backing of advanced manufacturers i...