Microsoft and Mistral AI Announce New Partnership to Accelerate AI Innovation and Introduce Mistral Large 1st on Azure

Feb. 27, 2024 — Microsoft has announced a multi-year partnership with Mistral AI, a recognized leader in generative artificial intelligence. The AI industry is undergoing a significant transformation with growing interest in more efficient and cost-effective models, emblematic of a broader trend in technological advancement. In the vanguard is Mistral AI, an innovator and trailblazer. Their commitment to fostering the open-source community and achieving exceptional performance aligns harmoniously with Microsoft’s commitment to develop trustworthy, scalable, and responsible AI solutions.

This partnership with Microsoft enables Mistral AI with access to Azure’s cutting-edge AI infrastructure, to accelerate the development and deployment of their next generation large language models (LLMs) and represents an opportunity for Mistral AI to unlock new commercial opportunities, expand to global markets, and foster ongoing research collaboration.

Arthur Mensch, CEO of Mistral AI, said: “We are thrilled to embark on this partnership with Microsoft. With Azure’s cutting-edge AI infrastructure, we are reaching a new milestone in our expansion propelling our innovative research and practical applications to new customers everywhere. Together, we are committed to driving impactful progress in the AI industry and delivering unparalleled value to our customers and partners globally.”

Microsoft’s partnership with Mistral AI is focused on three core areas:

1. Supercomputing infrastructure: Microsoft will support Mistral AI with Azure AI supercomputing infrastructure delivering best-in-class performance and scale for AI training and inference workloads for Mistral AI’s flagship models.
2. Scale to market: Microsoft and Mistral AI will make Mistral AI’s premium models available to customers through the Models as a Service (MaaS) in the Azure AI Studio and Azure Machine Learning model catalog. In addition to OpenAI models, model catalog offers a diverse selection of both open-source and commercial models. The ability to use Microsoft Azure Consumption Commitment (MACC) for purchasing Mistral AI’s models is available today. Azure’s AI-optimized infrastructure and enterprise-grade capabilities offer Mistral AI additional opportunities to promote, sell, and distribute their models to Microsoft customers worldwide.
3. AI research and development: Microsoft and Mistral AI will explore collaboration around training purpose-specific models for select customers, including European public sector workloads.

Expand AI Functions with Azure and Mistral AI

In November 2023, at Microsoft Ignite, Microsoft unveiled the integration of Mistral 7B into the Azure AI model catalog accessible through Azure AI Studio and Azure Machine Learning. Microsoft is excited to announce Mistral AI’s flagship commercial model, Mistral Large, available first on Azure AI and the Mistral AI platform, marking a noteworthy expansion of Microsoft offerings.

Mistral Large is a general-purpose language model that can deliver on any text-based use case thanks to state-of-the-art reasoning and knowledge capabilities. It is proficient in code and mathematics, able to process dozens of documents in a single call, and handles French, German, Spanish, and Italian (in addition to English).

This latest addition of Mistral AI’s premium models into Models as a Service (MaaS) within Azure AI Studio and Azure Machine Learning provides Microsoft customers with a diverse selection of the best state-of-the-art and open-source models for crafting and deploying custom AI applications, paving the way for novel AI-driven innovations.

“The Mistral AI models have been crucial in enhancing productivity and collaboration at CMA CGM,” said Séverine Grégoire, head of Digital, Innovation and AI at CMA CGM. “Their advanced capabilities have significantly improved the performance of our internal personal assistant, MAIA. Employees are now able to quickly access and engage with information like never before. We are confident that Mistral AI on Azure is the right choice to support our employees and drive innovation across our organization.”

Microsoft is committed to supporting global AI innovation and growth, offering world-class datacenter AI infrastructure, and developing technology securely to empower individuals with the skills they need to leverage AI effectively. This partnership with Mistral AI is founded on a shared commitment to build trustworthy and safe AI systems and products. It further reinforces Microsoft’s ongoing efforts to enhance our AI offerings and deliver unparalleled value to our customers. Additionally, the integration into AI Studio ensures that customers can utilize Azure AI Content Safety and responsible AI tools, further enhancing the security and reliability of AI solutions.

Explore Solutions with Azure and Mistral AI Today

Visit the Mistral Large model card and sign in with your Azure subscription to get started with Mistral Large on Azure AI today. You can also review the technical blog to learn how to use Mistral Large on Azure AI. Visit Mistral AI’s blog to get deeper insights about the model.

Source: Eric Boyd, Corporate Vice President, Azure AI Platform, Microsoft