From TechTarget:

Microsoft has partnered with French startup Mistral AI, investing over $2 billion in the firm and making Mistral models available to Azure customers. The partnership includes collaboration on training models for customers, aligning with Mistral’s new release of an AI chatbot and language model.

Microsoft’s surprising investment in Mistral indicates a strategic move to address market dominance concerns and adapt to emerging trends in generative AI, including the rise of small and midsize language models and open source models. Mistral’s models are seen as comparable in capabilities to OpenAI’s, prompting Microsoft’s desire to ensure its position in the market.

The partnership between Microsoft and Mistral provides choices for customers in the generative AI market and regional opportunities in Western Europe, especially with stricter AI regulations. Mistral’s responsible approach to AI safety and lack of guardrails needed for OpenAI models have garnered attention from enterprises, posing a monetization challenge for Microsoft with open source models.



Read more at TechTarget: Microsoft allies with OpenAI rival Mistral AI