Mistral AI plans IPO

French AI lab Mistral is working toward an initial public offering, co-founder and CEO Arthur Mensch said Tuesday in an interview with Bloomberg at the World Economic Forum in Davos.

Mistral is “not for sale,” Mensch said, adding that the company plans to open an office in Singapore to focus on the Asia-Pacific region and is growing in Europe and the U.S. “Of course, [an IPO is] the plan.”

Mistral, which Mensch launched in 2023 alongside former researchers from Google’s DeepMind and Meta, is often described as Europe’s answer to U.S. incumbents like OpenAI. The lab releases AI models and services that compete with offerings from OpenAI and others, including a ChatGPT-like platform called Le Chat.

Mistral has raised around $1.14 billion in capital to date from investors including Andreessen Horowitz, General Catalyst, and Lightspeed Venture Partners. The company was reportedly last valued at around $6 billion.