What is Mistral AI? What You Should Know About OpenAI’s Challenger

Mistral AI, a French AI startup, is blooming into one of the boldest and best-funded tech companies that Europe has ever seen. Founded in 2023, it has very rapidly assumed the major preeminence in the AI space and is most widely considered Europe's best answer to U.S. giants like OpenAI. Funded at a $6 billion valuation, partnered strategically, selling generative models, and sustaining an image of openness and sustainability, Mistral AI is the name that is keeping its foot in the regional space and aiming for global amplification.

This article provides a detailed overview of Mistral AI, its business model, key products, investor interest, and what buying Mistral AI shares might look like in the future.

Mistral AI: Background and Vision

Founded by three prominent AI researchers—Arthur Mensch (CEO, ex-Google DeepMind), Timothée Lacroix (CTO), and Guillaume Lample (Chief Scientist, both formerly at Meta)—Mistral AI was born with a mission to “put frontier AI in the hands of everyone.” While OpenAI has largely centralized its ecosystem through ChatGPT and partnerships with Microsoft, Mistral AI emphasizes open access, environmental sustainability, and European digital sovereignty.

The company is behind the popular generative AI assistant Le Chat, which offers a compelling alternative to ChatGPT and is available across iOS and Android platforms. Within two weeks of launch, the app reached over one million downloads, topping France’s iOS App Store—a feat bolstered by public endorsements, including from President Emmanuel Macron.

Key Offerings and Technological Differentiators

Mistral AI is not a one-product company. Its model suite rivals leading global labs, with innovations across text, code, vision, and multimodal AI:

• Mistral Large 2: A large language model (LLM) designed for robust general-purpose use.
• Pixtral Large: A multimodal model integrating text and images, released in 2024.
• Codestral: A generative model for writing and debugging code.
• Les Ministraux: Lightweight models optimized for on-device deployment on smartphones and IoT devices.
• Mistral Saba: Focused on Arabic-language support and regional accessibility.
• Mistral OCR: Released in March 2025, it facilitates high-precision PDF-to-AI-readable text conversion, a breakthrough for business use cases.

These offerings are designed with a focus on openness. Some are open-source, including Mistral NeMo, which is the open collaboration with NVIDIA that was released under the Apache 2.0 license.

How Mistral AI Makes Money

Despite its strong open-access philosophy, Mistral AI has begun monetizing its services through several strategic pathways:

• Le Chat Pro: A subscription plan introduced in February 2025 at $14.99/month for enhanced AI access.
• API Licensing: Businesses can access its premium models via APIs under usage-based pricing structures.
• Enterprise Partnerships: Mistral AI has entered strategic enterprise and governmental partnerships. These include partnerships with the French military, AFP (Agence France-Presse), IBM, and shipping company CMA CGM.

While its revenue remains in the eight-digit range, according to various reports, the company is betting on scaling adoption to align with its multi-billion-dollar valuation.

Mistral AI Share: Can You Buy It?

As of May 2025, Mistral AI is a privately owned firm and its stock is not available to be publicly bought. Retail investors thus cannot at present buy shares of Mistral AI on regular stock exchanges.

Early investments, nonetheless, have been made by venture capital and strategic partners. Among them are Lightspeed Venture Partners, Andreessen Horowitz, General Catalyst, Microsoft, and prominent European investors such as Bpifrance and BNP Paribas.

Mistral AI Share WKN Number

As Mistral AI is not listed on a stock exchange, it does not receive a WKN (Wertpapierkennnummer)—a specific German security identification number normally allocated to listed companies. Upon a public listing (IPO) announcement, it can get a WKN if listed on a German exchange, or similar equivalents such as a CUSIP or ISIN if listed elsewhere.

Investors interested in gaining exposure to Mistral AI might consider:

• Monitoring its IPO prospects, which CEO Arthur Mensch confirmed is the long-term goal.
• Investing indirectly via venture capital funds or companies with stakes in Mistral AI (e.g., Microsoft, Nvidia).
• Exploring AI ETFs or funds that might eventually include Mistral AI post-IPO.
  
  

Funding Milestones and Valuation

The funding history is nothing extraordinary: in under two years, Mistral AI was able to garner over €1 billion (~$1.04 billion), both equity and debt.

A rundown of the consignment:

• June 2023: $112 million seed round by Lightspeed, valuing the month-old startup at $260 million.
• December 2023: €385 million Series A at a $2 billion valuation, led by Andreessen Horowitz.
• February 2024: Microsoft joined with a €15 million strategic investment.
• June 2024: €600 million of a mixed raise, consisting of both equity and debt, with the valuation at $6 billion. General Catalyst, Cisco, Nvidia, Samsung Ventures, and IBM have funded it.

This much capital investment places Mistral AI among the top five AI startups by valuation worldwide.

Strategic Partnerships and Global Reach

Mistral AI’s momentum is also bolstered by a series of strategic alliances, many aimed at expanding its commercial footprint and research capabilities:

• Microsoft Azure: Distributes Mistral’s models through the Azure cloud ecosystem.
• AFP: Provides exclusive access to decades of archival news content.
• Defense and Public Sector: Includes deals with France’s army and job agency.
• Industry Players: Collaborative relationships with Stellantis, IBM, and Orange are a significant commitment to integrate AI across an array of sectors-from automotive through telecom.

These relationships foster an environment of long-term adoption but also serve to protect against the risk of being acquired by larger U.S. entities.

What Next for Mistral AI?

Although a unicorn, Mistral AI faces a few challenges:

• Revenue Scaling: Being valued at $6 billion, revenues in the current eight digits must grow exponentially.
• Competition: They will need to out-innovate the big boys, including OpenAI, Anthropic, Google DeepMind, and Meta's FAIR.
• Regulatory Pressure: Being a French company and working with sensitive data and defense applications, a considerable level of EU and national scrutiny is directed at them.

Nevertheless, with a firm roadmap, strong leadership, and acknowledged growth in users of Le Chat, Mistral AI is positioned well not just to oppose OpenAI but to be the defining next-generation global AI development indicator.

Conclusion

In all seriousness, Mistral AI is not just the crown jewel of the French AI scene, but that of Europe as well, forming that best shot at building sovereign, ethical, and open artificial intelligence at scale. Although you can't yet buy into Mistral AI, its potential IPO and partnerships keep it front and center in the conversation. Through enterprise licensing, subscription revenue, or even a variation of an IPO, Mistral AI is setting the stage for a lasting impact and investment relevance on the fast-growing AI scene.