In a recent announcement, Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) revealed its partnership with French startup Mistral AI, aiming to offer Mistral’s artificial intelligence models on Microsoft’s Azure cloud computing platform. This collaboration signifies Microsoft’s strategy to diversify its AI offerings beyond its primary investment in OpenAI, broadening its appeal to Azure cloud service customers.
As part of the multi-year agreement, Microsoft will not only make Mistral’s AI models available through Azure but also acquire a minority stake in Mistral, although specific financial details remain undisclosed. While Mistral confirmed Microsoft’s investment, the tech giant clarified that it does not hold equity in the startup. Microsoft’s significant involvement with OpenAI has drawn regulatory scrutiny in both Europe and the U.S.
Headquartered in Paris, Mistral specializes in developing open-source and proprietary large language models (LLMs), akin to OpenAI’s groundbreaking ChatGPT, capable of understanding and generating text in a manner resembling human language. The partnership will initially introduce Mistral’s latest proprietary model, Mistral Large, to Azure customers, with Mistral’s technology being hosted on Microsoft’s cloud platform.
Mistral has also collaborated with other tech giants such as Amazon (AMZN.O) and Google to deploy its models. The startup plans to expand availability by making Mistral Large accessible on additional cloud platforms in the coming months, according to a spokesperson.
Founded by Timothée Lacroix and Guillaume Lample, former members of Meta’s (NASDAQ:META) artificial intelligence teams, along with Arthur Mensch, a former researcher at Google’s DeepMind (NASDAQ:GOOGL), Mistral brings a wealth of expertise to the table, further enriching Microsoft’s AI ecosystem through this strategic partnership.
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