Interview: “We can’t afford to lose the competition”: How Mistral wants to catch up with OpenAI and Anthropic

Berlin. “We are in the middle of an epochal change.” These were the words Friedrich Merz used to describe the importance of AI for Germany and Europe at the Federal Government's digital summit. However, Europe is dependent on the USA for infrastructure and lags behind in the development of AI models. Accordingly, only a few Europeans are shaping this epochal change. One of the most important: Arthur Mensch.

The Frenchman is the founder and CEO of Mistral, Europe's most valuable AI company. With Mistral Large 4, it has developed the most powerful AI model in Europe. It is intended to help catch up on the technological gap with the USA and China and pave the way for European companies to enter the AI ​​age.

Just in September, Mistral raised three billion euros, completing the largest financing round of a European technology company to date. Today the company is worth 21 billion euros. The 34-year-old Mistral boss spoke to Handelsblatt about catching up with US competition and solutions for Europe.