A startup from France called Mistral AI received a financial boost of 600 million euros ($645 million) in investment, showing the continuous flow of significant funds into the artificial intelligence industry.

The funding round, recently disclosed by the company, has placed Mistral AI at a value of 5.8 billion euros, or roughly $6.2 billion, as disclosed by a source familiar with the situation who was not allowed to speak publicly.

Though details about the funding were sparse from Mistral AI, reports from the Financial Times indicated that the investment was spearheaded by venture capital firm General Catalyst, with participation from existing backers.

Despite being just over a year old, this French startup has managed to secure substantial amounts of money and is positioning itself to rival OpenAI as Europe’s key contender in the field of artificial intelligence. Mistral AI is focusing on the development of large language models (LLMs) that serve as the foundation for applications such as ChatGPT-fueled chatbots.

Projects of this nature are capital-intensive and demand significant investments in infrastructure, including the acquisition of Nvidia’s semiconductors.

The initial seed funding round for Mistral, meaning the first round of capital injection into a company, amounted to 105 million euros when it was disclosed last year.

Arthur Mensch, the CEO and co-founder of Mistral, has risen to prominence in the European tech community as startups across the region look to challenge tech giants like Microsoft, Google, and Amazon from the U.S.

Interestingly, these same industry giants are also exploring partnerships with these emerging entities. In a noteworthy development, Microsoft announced its investment in Mistral back in February.

Expressing his gratitude on social media platform X, Mensch extended his thanks to both new and existing investors of the company “for their ongoing trust and backing in our global expansion.”

He further emphasized, “This will hasten our progress as we strive to make advanced AI accessible to everyone.”