According to Bloomberg, the French artificial intelligence startup Mistral AI is finalizing a 2 billion euro funding round, which would bring its post-money valuation to 14 billion dollars, placing it among Europe's most valuable technology startups.
The two-year-old company was founded by former researchers from DeepMind and Meta, and is seen as a major competitor to OpenAI. Mistral AI mainly develops open-source language models and has launched an AI chatbot called Le Chat designed specifically for European users.
Although Mistral AI has not commented on this report, if true, it would be the company's first major funding since June 2024, when its valuation was 5.8 billion euros. Previously, Mistral AI had raised over 1 billion euros from well-known investment institutions including Andreessen Horowitz and General Catalyst.
This funding news comes at a time when European AI startups are experiencing unprecedented momentum. According to Dealroom data, investment in European AI companies increased by 55% year-on-year in the first quarter of 2025, and 12 European startups reached unicorn status in the first half of the year.
Other companies leading this growth wave include the Swedish AI coding platform Lovable, which reached an 1.8 billion dollar valuation just eight months after its launch in July. These figures indicate that Europe is becoming an important center for global AI innovation.
Mistral AI's rapid development reflects Europe's ambitions in the field of AI. The company's focus on open-source models contrasts sharply with many American competitors, and this differentiated positioning may be one of the key factors attracting investors.
If this funding round is ultimately confirmed, Mistral AI will further solidify its position in the global AI competition landscape and inject more confidence into the European tech ecosystem. This valuation level indicates that investors have an optimistic view of Europe's AI technological innovation capabilities and market potential.
Currently, the global AI market competition is intensifying. It remains to be seen whether Mistral AI can use this new capital to gain a more favorable position in the competition against giants such as OpenAI and Anthropic.
