AI startup by ex-Meta and Google researchers raises $113M in seed funding

The company is on a hiring spree and on the lookout for researchers, software engineers and product developers in AI.

A brand new artificial intelligence (AI) startup dedicated to rival ChatGPT creator, OpenAI, raised $113 million in seed funding, bringing up its valuation to $260 million within two months of inception.

Former AI researchers — previously working for Google DeepMind and Meta — co-founded Mistral AI, in May 2023 to develop open-source generative AI models. Arthur Mensch, the co-founder and CEO of the company said that the first round of funding “will give us the resources and network we need to start rolling out a new model of generative artificial intelligence.”

Prior to co-founding Mistral AI, Mensch was a research scientist at Google Deep Mind. The other two co-founders — Timothee Lacroix and Guillaume Lample — worked at Facebook AI as a research engineer and research scientist respectively.

The funding round was led by Lightspeed Venture Partners and saw participation from JCDecaux Holding, Rodolphe Saadé and Motier Ventures among others. The trio will run the company from Paris and plan to release its first models for text-based generative AI in 2024.

The company is on a hiring spree and on the lookout for researchers, software engineers and product developers in AI. At the time of writing, the newly formed Mistral AI did not have any social media presence either.

Related: UK to get ‘early or priority access’ to AI models from Google and OpenAI

Recently, Sam Altman, the CEO of OpenAI, met South Korean South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol and urged the country to lead the manufacturing of chips dedicated to AI technology.

OpenAI currently utilizes chips from Taiwan, but Altman revealed the incoming need for a supply of chips from Korea in the future.

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