Microsoft Strikes Deal with France's Mistral AI

Microsoft announced an artificial intelligence partnership Monday with the French startup Mistral AI that could lessen the software giant's reliance on ChatGPT-maker OpenAI for supplying the next wave of chatbots and other generative AI products. Mistral AI emerged less than a year ago but is already what Microsoft described Monday as an "innovator and trailblazer" at the vanguard of building more efficient and cost-effective AI systems. Microsoft and Mistral didn't disclose the financial terms of the deal, though Microsoft said it involves a small investment in the Paris-based startup. That suggests it is far smaller than Microsoft's investment of billions of dollars into OpenAI, a years-long relationship that has attracted the scrutiny of antitrust regulators in the U.S. and Europe. Mistral on Monday released a public test version of its own chatbot, called Le Chat, that apparently was flooded with so much interest that a company executive said it was temporarily unavailable for part of the day.