A fresh wind seized the teams of the French start-up Mistral in late January. It was not the weather. A new Chinese competitor hitherto unknown has put online language models whose performance equals those of the leader, the American Openai, the father of Chatgpt. Deepseek is his name, above all accomplished this feat at a minimal cost. The discovery sparked a small storm in American tech, which erased around $ 1,000 billion in market capitalization in one day on January 27. She also sparked the question around Europe and its Mistral champion. Because this “Deepseek moment” could have been his.
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This stimulating breeze, the French nugget knows it well for having blew it during its creation, eighteen months ago. Arthur Mensch, Guillaume Lample and Timothée Lacroix launched Mistral AI with the aim of competing with American leadership on the size and efficiency of models, the pure performance race being more risky due to a funding deficit and ‘Access to the best ia chips. A bet noticed worldwide. “The initial advantage of Mistral is to combine solid performances in a smaller model, which allows it to be deployed for many uses,” explains Daniel Castro, vice-president of the ITIF, a reflection group based in States -Unis. But Deepseek went a notch further in optimizing costs. A major turning point for the deployment of AI.
Mistral is no longer the best non -American player. “Bravo”, recognized with Fair-Play Arthur Mensch, on X. The “DEEPSEEK moment” is, moreover, not just a technical pirouette. It ridicules the American super project Stargate on AI, with $ 500 billion. Deepseek finally emerges while France and Europe are trying to place itself at the center of the game by organizing an international summit. In Paris, Mensch was to be one of the stars with Sam Altman, of Openai. A duo to which we must now add the shadow of Liang Wenfeng, the man of the “moment”.
“Commoditization”
In theory, Mistral seems to be taken in the vice between these two personalities embodying for one the revolt of Chinese engineering slowed down by the restrictions on the fleas, and for the other American gigantism. But Deepseek published its open source recipes. Anyone can copy them, including Mistral, who is also used to sharing. “The balance of forces is upset, for the benefit of open source alternative actors,” says Express Audrey Herblin-Stop, the spokesperson for the tricolor start-up. “Nothing is played,” insisted in the same vein the minister responsible for digital and artificial intelligence, Clara Chappaz.
Europe can see a double advantage. The value of the models decreases, since they are easy to produce and less and cheaper to use. Analysts call this “convenience”. The next battle will therefore be carried out in business advice and the creation of specific models for specific use cases in industry, health or education. A land that Europe masters. Some come, in this context, to minimize the importance of Mistral. “Do we really have to continue to make it the center of our attention? The race for consumer models is not the most interesting,” observes Raphaël Pouyé, co-founder of the Plurall consultancy and teacher at Sciences Po.
“This commoditization is not for now,” says Adina Yakefu, AI researcher and specialist in Chinese open source at Hugging Face. Deepseek does not invalidate the needs for large peak models. In truth, he “distills” them in order to improve his own. And innovation remains mainly American: Openai has just repelled borders again, in early February, with a new “in -depth research” tool capable of independently find a multitude of information and provide analysis work. “So you always need researchers to create large complex models,” notes a connoisseur of Mistral activities.
Keeping know-how is essential. The French champion has it, which is recognized on the old continent. By investors, with more than 1 billion euros raised. By political power, in particular Emmanuel Macron. By the French tech ecosystem, Xavier Niel (Iliad) and Rodolphe Saadé (CMA CGM) in the lead. By the major global technological powers such as Microsoft and Nvidia, business partners. And through the IA world: Mensch, Lample and Lacroix combine French academic excellence and experience. “They have one of the best teams in the world,” says an analyst.
The discreet cat
Precious good for the EU. For its sovereignty, its security. Data exchange with the United States is increasingly controlled. Deepseek is largely censored by the Chinese Communist Party and also raises confidentiality issues. Europe, which is currently trying to wake up in the face of the aggressiveness of the Trump-Musk duo, counts more than ever on its flagship. Mistral’s recent partnership with AFP, the largest French press agency – and among the most important in the world – is a positive signal on its respect for values and ethics dear to European legislators. The start-up, in return, expects even more simplification, especially on the regulation and implementation of the Act.
Persists, for her, the puzzle of the economic model. “Before, the value in AI was associated with large models. Now products like Chatgpt or Deepseek. However, that of Mistral is not well identified”, Cingle Tariq Krim, creator of the Cybernetica reflection club. His conversation agent Le Cat tries to remedy this criticism. Even if, unlike its two rivals, it is not available via a mobile application. Mistral insists in parallel on its forces, with companies and developers: “Control, personalization and multilingualism”, summarizes Audrey Herblin-Stoop. His income would rise to several tens of millions of dollars a year, thanks to some pretty contracts with firms deemed like IBM, Mars or Sap, relates the Financial Times. But the start-up is watching with envy the passing points of Openai, which a year after the release of Chatgpt was already tutying the billion dollars. This change of scale would be very useful to him. The fundraising quickly caps in Europe. The German Aleph Alpha, who preferred to abandon the race to the big models for lack of cash, can testify.
Entering the stock market is also, ultimately, a possibility. Mensch spoke about it on Bloomberg TV. To cut short, above all, to the sales rumors surrounding the business. Before her, other European nuggets have been swallowed by American Big Tech, such as AI inflection. This is the dreaded scenario. At least as much as that of becoming a lukewarm and less efficient “copy” of what is happening across the Atlantic. A kind of qwant, this “European Google” which has never taken off. Mistral claims global ambitions. In the United States, first, where the start-up opened an office in Silicon Valley: the adoption of AI by companies is more important than in Europe. The company is also deployed in Asia, from Singapore. The globe is vast. Not being American or Chinese is an asset. “In the Gulf, partnerships are possible with firms and governments that refuse the rivalry between the two superpowers”, points to a relative of Mensch. Good embers, on which Mistral will have to blow.
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