Introduction
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.
Co-Founders and Background
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 DeepMind. The other two co-founders — Timothee Lacroix and Guillaume Lample — worked at Facebook AI as a research engineer and research scientist, respectively.
Funding and Investors
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.
Hiring and Social Media Presence
The company is on a hiring spree and is looking 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.
Industry Developments
Recently, Sam Altman, the CEO of OpenAI, met South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol and urged the country to lead the manufacturing of chips dedicated to AI technology.
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