Microsoft partners with French Mistral to expand AI footprint

Tech giant Microsoft announced Monday that it has formed a multiyear partnership with French startup rival Mistral AI to accelerate innovation in artificial intelligence (AI), as the U.S. company seeks to further extend ground in the evolving field.

“The AI industry is undergoing a significant transformation with growing interest in more efficient and cost-effective models, emblematic of a broader trend in technological advancement,” Microsoft said in a statement.

“In the vanguard is Mistral AI, an innovator and trailblazer. Their commitment to fostering the open-source community and achieving exceptional performance aligns harmoniously with Microsoft’s commitment to develop trustworthy, scalable and responsible AI solutions,” it added.

The partnership provides Mistral AI access to Microsoft’s cloud computing platform Azure’s AI infrastructure to accelerate the development and deployment of its next-generation large language models (LLMs), according to the statement.

“With Azure’s cutting-edge AI infrastructure, we are reaching a new milestone in our expansion, propelling our innovative research and practical applications to new customers everywhere,” said Mistral AI CEO Arthur Mensch.

The partnership focuses on three areas – Microsoft to support Mistral AI with Azure AI supercomputing infrastructure, the companies to make Mistral AI’s premium models available to customers and collaboration in AI research and development.

Microsoft will take a minority stake in Mistral as part of the deal, the startup told Reuters without disclosing details.

Microsoft confirmed its investment in Mistral but said it holds no equity in the company. The tech giant is under regulatory scrutiny in Europe and the U.S. for its outsized funding in OpenAI.

Mistral AI was founded in April last year, raising more than $400 million in October and gaining a valuation of over $2 billion by December.

The French company has also been working with Amazon and Google to distribute its models. It plans to make Mistral Large available on other cloud platforms in the next few months, a spokesperson said.