Paris-based Mistral AI has raised €600 million in a Series B funding round.

The funding round was led by General Catalyst and included investors like Lightspeed Venture Partners and Nvidia.

This latest round values Mistral AI at $6 billion, a significant increase since its last funding round in December.

Founded in 2023 by French entrepreneurs with experience at Meta and Google, Mistral AI offers large language models for free, charging for API access to proprietary models.

Their open-source approach, including models under the Apache 2.0 license, has established Mistral as a key industry player.

The new funding will be used for global expansion, research, and strengthening partnerships, including a recent collaboration with Microsoft's Azure platform.

Mistral AI's focus on commercializing proprietary models and generating revenue through enterprise plans and model licensing has made them a competitive force in the AI market.

French President Emmanuel Macron sees Mistral AI as crucial in advancing intelligence and solving complex problems, enhancing France's reputation as a leader in AI development.