内容来源：https://aibusiness.com/generative-ai/european-ai-startup-mistral-ai-secures-2b-in-funding

内容总结：

欧洲AI初创企业Mistral AI于本周二宣布完成20亿美元融资，估值较之前的60亿美元猛增至140亿美元。本轮C轮融资由荷兰半导体设备制造商阿斯麦（ASML Holding NV）领投，英伟达、General Catalyst等现有投资方跟投。

作为2023年4月才成立的年轻企业，Mistral AI在成立两个月后就获得1.13亿美元融资，并迅速推出开源大模型Mistral 7B。尽管曾推出对标ChatGPT的消费者产品Le Chat，该公司目前主要聚焦企业级市场，特别关注金融和受严格监管的行业领域，致力于开发高效能且适合边缘部署的中小型语言模型。

分析师指出，阿斯麦作为芯片制造设备领域的龙头企业投资AI初创公司实属罕见，此举凸显了欧洲培育本土人工智能领军企业的战略决心。尽管Mistral AI在欧洲市场展现出强劲增长势头，其融资规模与美国同业仍存在显著差距——本月 Anthropic 刚完成130亿美元的F轮融资。

业界关注点在于：Mistral AI能否凭借其"高效模型+开源闭源混合"的技术路线，在由美国企业主导的全球AI市场中突围。虽然其模型在美国基准测试中未登顶，但分析师认为其混合专家模型技术具有全球竞争力。尽管各国"主权AI"战略可能带来市场壁垒，但专家认为Mistral完全具备参与全球竞争的实力。

未来五年，这家欧洲AI明星企业究竟将成为区域巨头还是全球领导者，取决于其商业化拓展能力。此次融资既彰显了欧洲发展自主人工智能技术的决心，也反映出欧美在AI投资生态上的文化差异。

中文翻译：

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本轮融资由制造商阿斯麦控股公司领投。这既彰显了这家AI初创企业在欧洲市场的重要地位，也揭示了其可能面临的海外挑战。

欧洲供应商Mistral AI于周二宣布完成20亿美元融资，公司估值从60亿美元飙升至140亿美元，增幅超一倍。荷兰半导体设备制造商阿斯麦控股公司领投了C轮融资，英伟达、General Catalyst和Index Ventures等现有投资方跟投。此次融资印证了这家AI初创企业对欧洲AI市场的重要意义。

Mistral由Arthur Mensch、Guillaume Lample和Timothee Lacroix于2023年4月创立。成立两个月后即获得1.13亿美元融资；数月后推出首个开源语言模型Mistral 7B。此后该公司虽曾通过推出ChatGPT竞品Le Chat试水消费市场，但始终以企业市场为主战场。

"欧洲再没有第二家企业能像他们这样，真正与美国前沿模型提供商展开正面较量。"Futurum集团分析师尼克·佩兴斯指出。他补充说，Mistral AI并未泛泛面向所有企业，而是特别关注受监管行业和金融领域，同时优先发展模型效率及更轻量的语言模型——这类模型通常部署于边缘设备、企业环境或终端设备。

佩兴斯认为，考虑到阿斯麦是微芯片制造专用设备领域的市场领导者，其投资行为颇具深意。"这家公司本职是制造高端芯片生产设备，本不应成为理想投资伙伴。"他表示此次投资更可能源于双方共同的欧洲领军企业身份，"这宣告了欧洲打造具有竞争力AI模型的决心。"

GAI Insights首席执行官保罗·贝尔指出，此次交易也为Mistral在欧洲AI市场的发展奠定基础。"他们在营收增长和融资方面的卓越表现，在欧洲市场堪称例外。"但他补充说，这种增长是否足够仍存疑问。"五年后，Mistral究竟会成为欧洲重要企业，还是成长为全球巨头？这需要通过销售网络建设来解答。"

佩兴斯表示，Mistral的生成式AI技术路线使其未在美国基准测试中登顶——在该测试中其模型需与Anthropic和OpenAI的模型同台竞技。"他们确实打造高性能模型，但更专注于构建高效模型，有时甚至是更轻量的模型，并采用开源与闭源结合的混合模式。"

Informa TechTarget旗下机构Omdia分析师马克·贝丘指出，尽管技术路线独特，Mistral仍在北美市场取得了一定成功。"Mistral独具优势。他们拥有真正优秀的模型，是首批推出专家混合模型的企业之一，因此能在全球各地参与竞争。"他补充说，尽管主权AI（指AI系统和基础设施在一国境内受控）的发展可能导致各国优先采用本土模型，但"Mistral拥有全球市场，且在各地都表现出色"。

本轮融资也折射出美国投资市场的激进与欧洲保守态度之间的反差。虽然Mistral的融资规模可观，但与Anthropic本月早些时候F轮融资130亿美元的规模相比仍相形见绌。"美国投资文化具有独特性，难以复制。"贝丘表示，"美国风投机构乃至所有投资者的文化基因就是敢于冒险。"

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英文来源：

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The funding round was led by manufacturer ASML Holding NV. It shows the significance the AI startup holds in Europe and the challenge it could face in foreign countries.
European vendor Mistral AI revealed Tuesday that it raised $2 billion, more than doubling its valuation from $6 billion to $14 billion.
Dutch semiconductor equipment manufacturer ASML Holding NV led the Series C funding round, and existing investors such as Nvidia, General Catalyst and Index Ventures participated.
The funding shows the importance of the AI startup to the European AI market.
Mistral was founded in April 2023 by Arthur Mensch, Guillaume Lample and Timothee Lacroix. Two months after its founding, it raised $113 million; a few months later, it released its first open source language model, Mistral 7B. Since then, the vendor has primarily focused on the enterprise market, although dipped into the consumer market with ChatGPT competitor Le Chat.
"There really isn't another company in Europe trying to do what they're trying to do, which is to compete with the large U.S. frontier model providers," said Nick Patience, an analyst at The Futurum Group. He added that rather than the enterprise in general, Mistral AI has focused specifically on regulated and financial industries while prioritizing model efficiency and smaller language models, which are often deployed on the edge, in the enterprise or on a device.
ASML's investment is noteworthy, given the vendor is a market leader for manufacturing specialized machines used to produce microchips, according to Patience.
"This is a company that makes high-end machines that build chips; it's not a logical investment partner," he said.
It's more likely that the investment occurred because both ASML and Mistral AI are European champions, according to Patience.
"It represents a statement that Europe is serious about developing competitive AI models," he said.
The deal also sets up Mistral's growth in the European AI market, according to Paul Baier, CEO of GAI Insights.
"The fact they've done such a great job with both the revenue growth and fundraising is an exception to the rule for Europe," he said.
However, it's not clear if that growth will be enough, Baier added.
"Five years from now, will Mistral be a really important European company or will they be a really important global company?" he said. "That's solved through sales and distribution."
Mistral's approach to generative AI also keeps it from being at the top of the U.S. benchmarks where the company’s models would be compared with models from Anthropic and OpenAI, according to Patience.
"They make performance models, but they're more interested in building efficient models and in some cases smaller models and then this mix of open and closed source," Patience said.
Despite its different approach, Mistral has still found a little success in the U.S. market, according to Mark Beccue, an analyst at Omdia, a division of Informa TechTarget.
"Mistral stands on its own," Beccue said. "They have really good models. They were one of the first to introduce a mixture of expert models, so they compete everywhere."
He added that despite the growth of sovereign AI, where AI systems and infrastructure could be controlled within a nation's borders, could lead to an issue because each country might end up prioritizing the models made within its borders.
"Maybe there's something there, but in my view, Mistral has a worldwide market, and they do very well everywhere," Beccue continued.
The series funding also shows a contrast between the bullish investment market in the U.S. and the more conservative approach in Europe. While Mistral's investment is significant, it pales in comparison with the $13 billion Anthropic raised earlier this month in a Series F round.
"The culture of investment is unique in the U.S because it's just hard to replicate," Beccue said. "The U.S. culture for those venture capitalists or any kind of investment is to take the risk."
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