Microsoft Announces Partnership with Mistral AI

Microsoft and Mistral AI, the French Artificial Intelligence (AI) startup, have announced a strategic alliance to bring Mistral AI's language models to market through Microsoft's infrastructure. According to Microsoft, this is intended to bridge the gaps between pioneering research and solutions in the development and implementation of AI.

"With Azure's cutting-edge AI infrastructure, we are reaching a new milestone in our expansion, bringing our innovative research and practical applications to new customers everywhere. Together, we are committed to driving AI progress and delivering unparalleled value to our customers and partners around the world," said Arthur Mensch, CEO, Mistral AI, on the partnership.

The collaboration between Microsoft and Mistral AI seeks to leverage Microsoft's Azure AI infrastructure to expand the scope and opportunities of the French startup's AI models. Mistral AI's large language models will be available on Microsoft's platform, allowing it to promote, sell, and distribute its models to customers around the world. The partnership also aims to leverage Mistral AI's adaptive models for specific purposes, as will be tested by addressing the unique needs of select customers, Microsoft notes.

The partnership between the two companies, according to Eric Boyd, Corporate Vice President, Azure AI Platform, is made up of three key areas: supercomputing infrastructure, scaling to market, and AI research and development. This involves Microsoft supporting Mistral AI with Azure AI infrastructure for AI training and inference workloads. 

Microsoft will also offer premium Mistral AI models through Azure AI Studio and Azure Machine Learning, including the ability to use Microsoft Azure Consumer Commitment (MACC) to purchase Mistral AI models. The collaboration includes joint efforts on AI research and development, with a special focus on specific training models for selected customers—including European public sector workloads.

This collaboration not only benefits Mistral AI, but also Microsoft's acquisition of a minority stake in Mistral AI. The startup, just 10 months old, has a valuation of US$2 billion, just reached after its latest round of funding in December.

Finally, following the announcement, Mistral AI announced the launch of its most advanced language model, Mistral Large. This model will be available through Azure AI Studio and Azure Machine Learning, as well as on the Mistral AI platform in Europe. The company notes that Mistral Large is second only to OpenAI’s GPT-4 among massive multi-tasking language understanding models available through an Application Programming Interface (API).

“We tested Mistral Large through Azure AI Studio in an internal efficiency-oriented use case. Performance was comparable to state-of-the-art models with even better latency. We are keen to continue the exploration of this technology in our business,” said Philippe Rambach, Head of AI, Schneider Electric.