What is Mistral AI? Everything to know about the OpenAI competitor

Company Overview - Mistral AI is a French tech startup known for developing the AI chatbot Le Chat and several foundational large language models, positioning itself as a competitor to OpenAI [1][4] - The company aims to make frontier AI accessible to everyone, emphasizing its open-source approach compared to OpenAI's recent closed-source model [4] Recent Developments - Mistral AI's valuation has increased significantly from $6 billion in June 2024 to €11.7 billion (approximately $13.8 billion) following a Series C funding round led by ASML, which invested €1.3 billion (approximately $1.5 billion) [2] - The partnership with ASML is seen as a crucial milestone for Mistral, enhancing its visibility and collaboration opportunities [3] Product Features and Updates - Le Chat, Mistral's chatbot, achieved 1 million downloads within two weeks of its mobile release and became the top free download on the iOS App Store in France [5] - The chatbot was updated in July 2025 with new features, including a "deep research" mode, native multilingual reasoning, and advanced image editing capabilities [5] - As of September 2025, Le Chat includes a "Memories" feature that allows it to remember previous conversations, enhancing user experience [6] Technological Innovations - Mistral AI has introduced several models, including Mistral OCR, an optical character-recognition API, and Mistral Code, a vibe-coding client aimed at competing with other coding tools [6] Founders and Leadership - Mistral AI was founded by three individuals with backgrounds in AI research at major U.S. tech companies, including Google DeepMind and Meta [7]