Mistral AI Acquires Koyeb to Bolster Its Cloud Ambitions
In an exciting development in the tech industry, French AI company Mistral AI has made its first acquisition. The firm, last valued at $13.8 billion, has agreed to purchase Koyeb, a Paris-based startup specializing in simplifying AI app deployment at scale and managing the supporting infrastructure. This acquisition marks a significant step for Mistral AI as it continues to position itself as a full-stack player in the AI arena. The news source TechCrunch sheds light on this development.
Mistral AI’s Expansion into AI Cloud Infrastructure
Mistral AI, primarily known for developing large language models (LLMs), announced its entry into the AI cloud infrastructure segment in June 2025 with Mistral Compute. The acquisition of Koyeb is expected to accelerate the growth of this offering.
About Koyeb
Established in 2020 by a team of three ex-employees of French cloud provider Scaleway, Koyeb focuses on aiding developers in data processing without the hassle of handling server infrastructure, a concept known as “serverless”. This approach has gained much traction as AI became increasingly demanding, inspiring Koyeb to launch Koyeb Sandboxes – isolated environments where AI agents can be deployed.
Koyeb’s Role Post-Acquisition
Even before the acquisition, Koyeb’s platform was instrumental in deploying models from Mistral and other providers. In a recent blog post, Koyeb confirmed that its platform would continue to operate. However, it will now also assist Mistral in deploying models directly on the clients’ hardware (on-premises), optimize its GPU utilization, and help scale AI inference, the process of running a trained AI model to generate responses.
Koyeb’s Integration into Mistral AI
As part of the acquisition deal, Koyeb’s 13 employees, including co-founders Yann Léger, Edouard Bonlieu, and Bastien Chatelard, will be joining Mistral’s engineering team. Under the leadership of Mistral’s CTO and co-founder Timothée Lacroix, Koyeb’s platform is expected to transition into a core component of Mistral Compute in the coming months.
Mistral AI’s Cloud Ambitions
Mistral’s acquisition of Koyeb aligns with its escalating cloud ambitions. The company recently announced a $1.4 billion investment in data centers in Sweden, reflecting the growing demand for alternatives to U.S. infrastructure.
Koyeb’s Funding and Future
Before the acquisition, Koyeb had raised $8.6 million, including a $1.6 million pre-seed round in 2020 and a $7 million seed round in 2023 led by Paris-based VC firm Serena. Floriane de Maupeou, a principal at Serena, views this acquisition as a crucial step in building the foundations of sovereign AI infrastructure in Europe.
The Road Ahead for Mistral and Koyeb
With this acquisition, Mistral AI has surpassed a major milestone of $400 million in annual recurring revenue. The company, aided by Koyeb’s expertise, will now focus on helping enterprises unlock the value of AI. It’s worth noting that new users will no longer be able to sign up for Koyeb’s Starter tier.
Mistral didn’t disclose the financial terms of the deal. However, CEO Arthur Mensch, speaking at Stockholm’s Techarena conference, hinted at the organization’s plans for expansion, including hiring for infrastructure and other roles. He presented Mistral as a company “headquartered in Europe, doing frontier research in Europe”.
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