Microsoft has just announced a new partnership with another generative AI large language model company after becoming a significant investor in OpenAI. Today, Microsoft revealed a multi-year partnership with France-based Mistral AI.
In the post on its Azure blog, Microsoft said that the collaboration with Mistral AI will allow its large language models to be used on Microsoft's Azure AI supercomputing infrastructure. Azure AI Studio customers will also gain access to Mistral Large, its newly announced large language model.
While not mentioned in the blog, The Financial Times also reports that Microsoft has made an unknown but minor investment in Mistral AI as a result of this new partnership.
Mistral AI was formed less than a year ago by former members of Meta and Google's DeepMind division. It has already raised about $415 million in funding in 2023, and Microsoft's investment will likely help to boost Mistral AI's valuation.
In addition to Mistral Large, the company has also announced a new chatbot similar to OpenAI's ChatGPT. Because the company is based in France, this new chatbot is naturally called Le Chat. Businesses can sign up to beta test Le Chat now.
Microsoft's partnership and small investment in Mistral AI seem to indicate that the company doesn't want to completely depend on OpenAI's work for its generative AI needs. Microsoft has reported invested billions of dollars into OpenAI, and after the recent attempt at an executive coup at the company, OpenAI has invited Microsoft to be a non-voting member of its board of directors.
Microsoft's investment in OpenAI has also registered some inquiries from regulatory bodies as well. The UK, the US FTC and others are looking into if the Microsoft-OpenAI partnership could fall under its anticompetitive laws. It's possible Microsoft's investment into Mistral AI could be another bone of contention with those same regulatory bodies.
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