The French AI company Mistral, known for its open-weight AI chatbot, 'Le Chat' is currently negotiating a potentially substantial equity deal. The discussions, reaching up to $1 billion, involve a variety of investors such as Abu Dhabi's MGX fund according to Bloomberg.

In addition to equity, Bloomberg also reports that Mistral is liaising with French lenders, like Bpifrance SACA, to generate hundreds of millions in euro loans. Mistral has been approached for a comment by TechCrunch.

Mistral has made a significant impact within the European AI market, mainly due to their specialty in open-weight LLMs. As of now, the startup has accumulated over $1.19 billion in funding and reached a stunning $6.51 billion post-money valuation as per PitchBook reports. Their most recent funding round occurred in June 2024 with a successful Series B.

Mistral is already involved in an exciting project with MGX — a governmental $100 billion AI backing — and Nvidia. Together, they're creating the most extensive AI data center campus in Europe. The UAE's exclusive €50 billion investment in French AI firms further solidifies France's commitment to AI, as reflected by French President Emmanuel Macron.