Mistral AI aims for 'full value

"We want to be an independent and 'full-stack player' in artificial intelligence." Adopting certain anglicisms – emblematic of a company that is both global but also embedded in a sector dominated by American interests – Mistral AI co-founder Arthur Mensch expressed his determination to be present across "the entire value chain" of AI: from chips installed in data centers to software applications used by corporate clients. The French company, which was founded in April 2023 and is now the main European manufacturer of language processing models, announced its future plans at the AI Now Summit (Mistral's first annual conference), held in Paris on Thursday, May 28. Chief among the company's goals: to combine upstream growth – with a new data center project in Les Ulis (South of Paris) – and downstream expansion through partnerships with new industrial clients such as Airbus, BMW and French public electric utility company EDF.

A few days after Mensch's widely noted appearance before the Assemblée Nationale on May 12, where he stressed the need to act quickly to prevent Europe from becoming a "colony" of the United States in digital technologies and AI, he reiterated why he considers it crucial to deploy computing infrastructure in Europe to train and operate Mistral AI and its clients' AI models. "AI is starting to become as important as electricity. We need to ensure a supply that is available, affordable, adaptable and secure," he argued, evoking the "dominance" of the American cloud giants: Amazon, Microsoft and Google.

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