French AI lab Mistral AI is reportedly in early discussions to raise about €3 billion at a valuation of around €20 billion. The funding would nearly double its last Series C round valuation from September, reflecting the growing European push towards self-reliance in tech.

Mistral launched in 2023 with ambitious goals, positioning itself as an open alternative to American giants like OpenAI and Anthropic. It offers both foundational models for customization and closed models tailored for specific use cases such as programming and voice cloning.

With European countries stepping back from American tech dominance, Mistral is building a data center near Paris and partnering with key players including France’s army, Luxembourg's government, and major European firms. However, despite this push, it still lags behind its US counterparts in terms of funding and valuation.

The company has raised about $4 billion to date, significantly less than the $186 billion and $161.25 billion that OpenAI and Anthropic respectively have secured. This gap highlights how American labs are leading in both revenue and model adoption.