Mistral nearly doubles its valuation to €20B. Now it has to justify it — TFN

Mistral AI has started early discussions to raise €3 billion at a €20 billion valuation, nearly twice what the company was worth nine months ago.

The company plans to build its own data centres and aims to reach 1 gigawatt of computing capacity by 2030.

ASML, a Dutch chip equipment maker, is Mistral’s biggest shareholder and has become a surprising leader in Europe’s AI efforts.

Three years ago, Arthur Mensch, Guillaume Lample, and Timothée Lacroix left Google DeepMind and Meta to start an AI lab in Paris. Now, Mistral AI is in talks to raise €3 billion at a €20 billion valuation, with most of the funds earmarked for building data centres.

The Paris-based company wants to build its own computing infrastructure and reach 1 gigawatt of capacity by 2030. While many companies focus solely on improving their AI models, Mistral is competing with Amazon, Microsoft, and Google by investing in physical infrastructure, despite having fewer resources.