Microsoft’s multiyear deal with French AI company Mistral signaled that the company wants longevity in the space. The company invested €2 billion ($2.1 billion) into Mistral and announced it would bring Mistral’s newest AI model, Mistral Large, to Azure. But the investment into Mistral, mainly a developer of open-source AI models, doesn’t mean Microsoft lost faith in its first AI child, OpenAI. Instead, Microsoft is laying the groundwork to build Azure as a model garden and give itself a foothold in Europe. Arun Chandrasekaran, an analyst at Gartner, tells The Verge the deal emphasizes the managed services business of AI, one in which Azure can play a role. “Even before the Mistral announcement, Microsoft has been talking about building a model garden, so it is not a surprise that they will also have Mistral’s models,” he says. He adds working with Mistral, which is popular among developers, lets Microsoft tout the breadth of choices Azure offers. Microsoft is not the only tech company offering its clients other models. Most cloud providers, like AWS and Google, do this through managed services, providing access to the models and other services to make them easier to use. So, to compete, cloud providers try to be the first to offer highly coveted models. Microsoft securing an exclusive deal with Mistral to bring Mistral Large to customers makes Azure an interesting prospect for people building with other Mistral models. Azure has offered models for a while, but Microsoft became so tightly connected to OpenAI that it’s easy for people to forget the company works more than just GPT. Microsoft, of course, is OpenAI’s biggest investor.
Full story : Microsoft investing in Mistral puts the focus on its Azure model offerings without spurning OpenAI.
