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Mistral AI, Europe’s most well-known artificial intelligence startup, has secured new contracts worth hundreds of millions of dollars and is driving the rise in businesses that could help drive a billion-dollar fundraiser this year.
Paris-based Mistral faces intense competition from its US and Chinese competitors, but is beginning to benefit from the European push to establish regional champions.
According to those familiar with the finances, its revenue has increased several times since its last funding round a year ago, and for the first time it is on a trajectory above $100 million a year, if it maintains sales momentum.
A relatively small number of large customers drive much of its growth. Mistral was either closed or each was close to sealing off a handful of commercial contracts worth at least $100 million in three to five years, people said.
Since Donald Trump returned to the White House, non-US businesses, public sector and defense clients have increasingly been looking for alternatives to American tech companies.
“There are a lot of European companies that want to reduce their dependence on US providers. There is an increased demand for more strategic autonomy,” said Arthur Mensch, CEO of Mistral.
This spurred Mistral, which was valued at almost 6 billion euros in its final funding round a year ago, embarking on an ambitious programme that began with a collaboration between a big data centre in the Paris suburbs and Abu Dhabi-based technology and investment groups G42 and MGX.
To fund that effort, the company — which has already raised more than $1bn since it was founded two years ago — was considering raising up to $1bn more, according to people familiar with the matter.
Mistral declined to comment on financial performance or funding plans.
The Nvidia-backed company co-founded by three former meta and Google Deepmind researchers, is lagging behind our rivals, such as Openai and humanity, both in fundraising and commercialisation.
Mistral’s “open” AI model also faces competition from China’s Deepseek and Meta’s Llama, which allows customers to research and customize for their own applications.
But tensions between the Trump administration and Europe, and the desire for countries around the world to own and run their own AI infrastructure, could benefit Mistral, which generated only millions of dollars in revenue last year.
The latest contract is modelled on a 100 million euro contract with Mistral’s French transportation and logistics group CMA CGM. When the deal was announced in April, CMA CGM boss Rodolph Saade said the company would cooperate with the “made-to-order” AI system.
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With around 250 employees, Mistral has expanded its commercial team significantly in recent months. It employs a sales model similar to that of US data analytics provider Palantir, and employs a team that works like consultants in the best way to deploy AI into the business, like consultants with each customer.
This could mean a longer sales process than a typical enterprise software contract, but it will result in a larger potential winnings.
BNP Paribas, AXA, Stellantis and Veolia are one of Mistral’s current customers. It also has a partnership with European defence technology startup Helsing.
“Sovereignty isn’t our core business, we are a global company,” Mensch said in May. “However, the last 100 days have tripled our business, especially in Europe and outside of the US.”
