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Mistral raises 1.7B€, partners with ASML

mistral.ai

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Re: Mistral raises 1.7B€, partners with ASML

#211

Post by wahnfrieden »

artemisart wrote: post #185
diggan wrote: post #158

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> There are like 10 models that are smaller and faster and outperform both of them. As someone who is currently relying on Whisper for some things, what models are those exactly? I still haven't found anything that is accurate as Whisper (large), are those models just faster or also as accurate/more accurate?

Nvidia parakeet and canary are better and faster, here is a leaderboard: https://huggingface.co/spaces/hf-audio/open_asr_leaderboard

Parakeet isn’t more accurate than whisper large

Re: Mistral raises 1.7B€, partners with ASML

#212

Post by testdelacc1 »

> The collaboration between Mistral AI and ASML aims to generate clear benefits for ASML customers through innovative products and solutions enabled by AI

I don’t know much about lithography which is why I ask - what is an AI supposed to do in a lithography machine? Does anyone know?

Re: Mistral raises 1.7B€, partners with ASML

#213

Post by lonelyasacloud »

adcoleman6 wrote: post #21
greyb wrote: post #3

I truly do not see the USP for Mistral other than being based in EU. It's former USP of setting up their models on-premises for clients is now moot with the proliferation of open frontier models. I'd love to be proven wrong but I don't see a path forward for Mistral at this point, given how far they're behind and their overall lack of competitive advantages for an AI Lab like access to hardware, cheap energy or a mas…

Does ASML's investment portend a pivot to specialized, on-prem, enterprise models? No need to be the frontier general knowledge or even coding model, but instead an EU-based AI creator for things like chip design, pharma, automotive, etc?

Given current leaderships; it’s not hard to imagine scenarios where access to leading AI models from the US or China could be cut-off, restricted or otherwise compromised.

ASML, while European, has significant exposure to Taiwan’s semiconductor industry and is therefore vulnerable to risks from both sides. At the same time, the EU is aware of the danger of falling behind in its AI capabilities compared to the US and China.

In that light, the investment seems likely to be a mix of tax efficiency, building goodwill with the EU leaders, and a strategic hedge by ASML to ensure some degree of AI capability closer to home.

Re: Mistral raises 1.7B€, partners with ASML

#214

Post by andruby »

espadrine wrote: post #56
darkamaul wrote: post #4

I don’t really get why ASML is putting money into Mistral AI. ASML is specialized in lithography machines. Mistral, on the other hand, is yet another LLM startup. What’s the actual synergy here? The closest angle I can imagine is that AI workloads drive demand for more chips, but I believe ASML is already selling everything it can make.

Past Mistral investors: JC Decaux (urban advertizing), CMA CGM CEO (maritime logistics), Iliad CEO (Internet service provider), Salesforce (client relation management), Samsung (electronics), Cisco (network hardware), NVIDIA (chips designer)[0]. I agree ASML is a surprising choice, but I guess investments are not necessarily directly connected to the company purpose. BTW, I generated that list by asking my default se…

The list seems to be missing a couple of other notable investors: Eric Schmidt (former Google CEO), Andreessen Horowitz, Lightspeed Venture Partners, General Catalyst and Microsoft (only $16M).

Re: Mistral raises 1.7B€, partners with ASML

#215

Post by apwell23 »

decide1000 wrote: post #25
greyb wrote: post #3

I truly do not see the USP for Mistral other than being based in EU. It's former USP of setting up their models on-premises for clients is now moot with the proliferation of open frontier models. I'd love to be proven wrong but I don't see a path forward for Mistral at this point, given how far they're behind and their overall lack of competitive advantages for an AI Lab like access to hardware, cheap energy or a mas…

They’ve built performance, enterprise utility, privacy, sovereignty, open innovation and strategic partnerships into their core story. It's quite a list. The models are opensource, Voxtral outperforms Whisper in terms of accuracy. There is no AI company like Mistral.

> They’ve built performance, enterprise utility, privacy, sovereignty, open innovation and strategic partnerships into their core story.

This has to be a buzzwordiedest sentence i've ever read. what is 'enterprise utility' and how does mistral have that more than any of the other open models ?

Re: Mistral raises 1.7B€, partners with ASML

#216

Post by apwell23 »

dbdr wrote: post #117
kaliqt wrote: post #85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes. It's not like the model can spy on you, so if the model performs well on premise then it will be suitable irrespective of the origin.

There are concerns besides spying if you really don't trust the source of an open model. One is that the training incorporates a bias (added data or data omission) that might not be immediately apparent but can affect you in a critical situation. Another is vendor lock-in, if you end up depending on specifics of the model that make it harder to swap later. That's true regardless of the source, of course.

> Another is vendor lock-in, if you end up depending on specifics of the model that make it harder to swap later.

Wouldn't that 'concern' apply to mistral too. I don't see how the word 'another' can be used here?

Re: Mistral raises 1.7B€, partners with ASML

#217

Post by Perz1val »

testdelacc1 wrote: post #212

> The collaboration between Mistral AI and ASML aims to generate clear benefits for ASML customers through innovative products and solutions enabled by AI I don’t know much about lithography which is why I ask - what is an AI supposed to do in a lithography machine? Does anyone know?

"Jarvis, add more cores"

Re: Mistral raises 1.7B€, partners with ASML

#218

Post by laurent_du »

rdm_blackhole wrote: post #201
molf wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not only are the CEO + COO French, they recently hired Le Maire, French ex-minister of Finance as a strategic advisor. ASML has also been rumoured to exit the Netherlands and relocate to France. It is definitely a political move.

> they recently hired Le Maire, French ex-minister of Finance as a strategic advisor. Then I can say without much speculation that this will end in a disaster. Hiring Le Maire as a strategic advisor with his "accomplishments" should be taken as a sign of clear enshitiffication.

He won't be giving any advice, they are buying his contact list.

Re: Mistral raises 1.7B€, partners with ASML

#219

Post by teekert »

testdelacc1 wrote: post #212

> The collaboration between Mistral AI and ASML aims to generate clear benefits for ASML customers through innovative products and solutions enabled by AI I don’t know much about lithography which is why I ask - what is an AI supposed to do in a lithography machine? Does anyone know?

It’S a ClEaR bEnEfIt!

(… and if you can’t see the emperor’s clothes you are not pure of heart!)

Re: Mistral raises 1.7B€, partners with ASML

#220

Post by spiderfarmer »

testdelacc1 wrote: post #212

> The collaboration between Mistral AI and ASML aims to generate clear benefits for ASML customers through innovative products and solutions enabled by AI I don’t know much about lithography which is why I ask - what is an AI supposed to do in a lithography machine? Does anyone know?

I read it as:

We at ASML have a lot of cash. We think investing in Mistral will give us a ROI and investing in the EU right now is safer than the hellscape in the US. Politicians will like it as well. We'll let the PR firm worry about synergy.

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