On the occasion of the AI Summit, the French startup Mistral AI has multiplied announcements in many sectors: administration, industry, defense, telecoms, data centers… As a snub to the giants of the sector who are overwhelmed by resources without making any sparks. Mistral, the new star of AI? Its strategy does everything for it.

DeepSeek had its moment of glory and then… pschitt, general distrust! Discreet, efficient and a bearer of values, the French Mistral AI has on the contrary just placed itself permanently in the spotlight. Taking advantage of the AI Action Summit, organized in Paris on February 11 and 12, Mistral AI and its co-founder Arthur Mensch brilliantly monopolized the news, reinforcing its image as a benchmark AI among the 1,500 participants from around the world.

Spearhead and locomotive

Although a young startup – and French – Mistral and its Large model is already recognized worldwide for the efficiency of its generative AI. Its CEO, Arthur Mensch, took advantage of the summit and the presence in Paris of 1,500 political figures, business leaders, renowned engineers, investors… from all over the world to hammer home its efficiency, its difference and its ambitions.

Openly endorsed during this event by the President of the Republic, Emmanuel Macron, supported very concretely by the entrepreneur-investor Xavier Niel, the CEO of Mistral has unveiled and detailed several key strategic partnerships, with, for example, Veolia, Free, Orange, Stellantis, France-Work…announcing a AI 2.0, that of targeted uses.

A mobile application that is already a hit

Very active, Arthur Mensch therefore took advantage of the summit to make announcements. Like that of his free application for mobile and tablets, “Le Chat”, powerful, flexible, more reliable and energy-efficient than its competitors. Le Chat has propelled itself since its release among the most downloaded AI apps. A major supporter, Xavier Niel, boss of Free, hastened to offer its Pro version free of charge (for 12 months) to the 15.5 million Free-mobile subscribers. A real springboard in the diffusion of AI technologies to the general public.

Strong, secure and European commitment

The summit was also an opportunity for Mistral AI to reaffirm its commitment for an ethical and responsible AI, in line with European values, and contrary to the libertarian position of the United States, left dissatisfied.

The opportunity also to unveil a huge investment project, worth three billion euros, for a data center that will be based in France. Enough to consolidate its European roots and have cheaper, non-polluting energy.

Projects at the forefront of AI

  • Stellantis : Mistral AI announced ahead of the AI Summit that it had entered into a “strategic partnership” with the automotive group Stellantis (Peugeot, Citroën, DS, Opel, Fiat, Chrysler, Dodge, etc.). The goal is to develop Voice-driven cars powered by AI, but not only that. Stellantis, which has already integrated ChatGPT on some Citroëns, without much success, is banking on Mistral to also improve the quality/profitability of its production. For example, explains the automobile group, “helping engineers identify, compare and optimize part selections to maximize reuse globally.” Enough to optimize production costs and improve the efficiency of manufacturing processes. For Mistral, this is a major recognition and a foot in the door of Industry that opens up enormous prospects for it…
  • Veolia : announced on February 5, this agreement provides that Mistral's AI will be integrated by Véolia in order to enable better management of its industrial sites by producing so-called natural interfaces, to communicate, in particular by voice, with each factory.
  • Agence France-Presse (AFP) : Another notable agreement was made in mid-January with AFP, Agence France Presse, to integrate AI features to help Mistral users organize their tasks, find reliable information and prepare documents… without worrying about copyright or plagiarism. A response to the problem of fake news and therefore user trust.
  • A step into the Defense : The Ministry of Defense unveiled during the summit a collaboration with Mistral AI to rethink the army with artificial intelligence solutions, including a service platform. This partnership also aims to modernize military operations and to integrate advanced technologies into national defense. We are thinking in particular of drones and autonomous weapons. It is in this spirit that Mistral and the German Helsing, which works with various European governments, have also announced a partnership to improve the efficiency of existing defense equipment.
  • Microsoft and other investors : The startup has also established partnerships with technology giants such as Microsoft, Salesforce and Nvidia. These collaborations allow Mistral AI to benefit from significant financial but also technological resources, with latest-generation GPUs that will help accelerate the response and calculation times of its AI. A trump card to preserve and establish its place in the pack of AI leaders.

This intense week of productive announcements has finished installing Mistral AI as a serious challenger to the American giants, capable, with much less financial means, of doing as well if not better. Didn't Xavier Niel recently declare: "Mistral is going to kill DeepSeek in two months"?! His secret? "We are more creative, faster and we do less politics", says Arthur Mensch. Not to mention a real development strategy!

  • Caption: AI-generated image depicting Arthur Mensch, CEO of Mistral AI, driving an electric Peugeot, which can be controlled by voice, with a Veolia factory in the background.