Four CEOs on the Future of AI: CoreWeave, Perplexity, Mistral, and IREN
(0:00) Intro live from Nvidia GTC
(0:37) CoreWeave CEO, Michael Intrator
(32:58) Perplexity CEO, Aravind Srinivas
(1:07:11) Mistral CEO, Arthur Mensch
(1:18:57) IREN CEO, Daniel Roberts
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Who Wins if AI Models Commoditize? — With Mistral CEO Arthur Mensch
Arthur Mensch is the CEO and co-founder of Mistral. Arthur Mensch joins the Big Technology Podcast to discuss what the AI business looks like if all leading models perform the same. Tune in to hear how the commoditization of foundational models is changing the balance of power in the industry, what business models will be profitable, and why the focus is shifting from building better models to building applications. We also cover the open source movement versus closed source models, the geopolitics of AI, and practical industrial applications of the technology.
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Why data is the biggest AI bottleneck (feat. Arthur Mensch of Mistral AI) | E2212
Today’s show:
The race for more compute gets all the headlines, but Mistral AI CEO Arthur Mensch tells us the REAL danger is running out of data!
On TWiST, Jason and Alex are chatting with the head of France’s largest foundation AI company, Mistral AI, about how enterprises can get more out of their AI pilots, whether the West is lacking leadership on open-source, why Mistral AI isn’t pursuing every possible kind of AI application, and optimizing your models for performance rather than benchmarks (aka benchmaxxing). Find out what it’s like to run a huge AI company in today’s intense environment!
PLUS… why everyone made the wrong call on OpenAI vs. Google… Kraken’s fresh $20 billion valuation… Jason’s urgent message to every company thinking about M&A… and much more!
Timestamps:
(3:35) Why did everyone get it wrong on Google vs. OpenAI?
(10:51) Why Jason thinks drone delivery will make everyone safer
(9:52) SQUARESPACE: Use offer code TWIST to save 10% off your first purchase of a website or domain at https://www.Squarespace.com/TWIST
(11:26) Mistral AI CEO Arthur Mensch joins us! What’s it like to run a foundation model AI company in this intense environment?
(14:50) Why enterprises aren’t getting enough value out of AI and how Mistral AI aims to correct this
(18:45) Why Mistral AI’s goal is, ultimately, to disappear…
(20:19) LinkedIn Ads: Start converting your B2B audience into high quality leads today. Launch your first campaign and get $250 FREE when you spend at least $250. Go to http://linkedin.com/thisweekinstartups to claim your credit.
(22:49) Are Europe and the US lacking leadership on open source AI?
(24:53) Mistral AI doesn’t need to compete in every category... how big of an advantage is focus?
(27:05) The “two bottlenecks” in Machine Learning: Compute and Data
(29:01) How Mistral AI works with human experts to annotate their models, and where they source them from
(30:06) Nexos.ai: Stop Shadow AI in its tracks with the unified platform for secure AI adoption and productivity. Try it with a free 14-day trial at https://nexos.ai/twist.
(34:24) Is optimizing your model for benchmark tests (aka benchmaxxing) like cheating?
(40:08) Will we ever be able to run smaller AI models on our phones?
(44:21) When does Arthur think we’ll have truly helpful humanoid robots in our lives?
(49:42) Suno lawsuits and why Jason says you should NEVER break the rules, ESPECIALLY with the music industry
(54:28) Release the Kraken! They’re now worth $20 billion.
(56:48) Jason is going to F1… should he take up the offer and do a dry run?
(58:30) How Meta beat the FTC and why Jason is so excited about it
(1:01:37) Who should buy Crunchbase?
Jensen Huang and Arthur Mensch on Winning the Global AI Race
The global race for AI leadership is no longer just about companies—it’s about nations. AI isn’t just computing infrastructure; it’s cultural infrastructure, economic strategy, and national security all rolled into one.
In this episode, Jensen Huang, founder and CEO of NVIDIA, and Arthur Mensch, cofounder and CEO of Mistral, sit down to discuss sovereign AI, national AI strategies, and why every country must take ownership of its digital intelligence.
How AI will reshape global economies and GDP
The full AI stack—from chips to models to AI factories
Why AI is both a general purpose technology and deeply specialized
The open-source vs. closed AI debate and its impact on sovereignty
Why no one will build AI for you—you have to do it yourself
Is this the most consequential technology shift of all time? If so, the stakes have never been higher.
Resources:
Find Arthur on X: https://x.com/arthurmensch
Find Anjney on X: https://www.linkedin.com/in/anjney/
Find NVIDIA on X: https://x.com/nvidia
Find Mistral: https://x.com/MistralAI
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Please note that the content here is for informational purposes only; should NOT be taken as legal, business, tax, or investment advice or be used to evaluate any investment or security; and is not directed at any investors or potential investors in any a16z fund. a16z and its affiliates may maintain investments in the companies discussed. For more details please see a16z.com/disclosures.
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Please note that the content here is for informational purposes only; should NOT be taken as legal, business, tax, or investment advice or be used to evaluate any investment or security; and is not directed at any investors or potential investors in any a16z fund. a16z and its affiliates may maintain investments in the companies discussed. For more details please see a16z.com/disclosures.
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20VC: OpenAI's Sam Altman, Mistral's Arthur Mensch and more discuss: Will Foundation Models Be Commoditised | Which Startups Are Threatened vs Enabled by OpenAI | Is the Value in the Infrastructure or Application Layer?
Sam Altman is the CEO @ OpenAI, the company on a mission is to ensure that artificial general intelligence benefits all of humanity. OpenAI is one of the fastest-scaling companies in history with a valuation of $90BN and $2BN+ in revenue.
Brad Lightcap is the COO @ OpenAI and the man responsible for the incredible scaling of sales, GTM, partnerships and business to today being over $2BN in revenue.
Arthur Mensch is the Co-Founder and CEO of Mistral AI. Since its inception in May 2023, Mistral has raised over $520M in funding from investors like Andreeseen Horowitz, General Catalyst, Lightspeed Venture Partners, and Microsoft with a current valuation of $2 billion.
Des Traynor is a Co-Founder of Intercom, and has built and led many teams within the company, including Product, Marketing, and Customer Support. Today Des leads all of Intercom's R&D efforts, and parts of Intercom's marketing.
Tom Hulme is a Managing Partner of GV (Google Ventures), and leads the European team. Today, GV has over $10BN in AUM and Tom has led investments in Lemonade.com (IPO), Snyk, Secret Escapes, Blockchain.com, GoCardless, and Currency Cloud (exited to Visa).
Tomasz Tunguz is the Founder and General Partner @ Theory Ventures, just announced last week, Theory is a $230M fund that invests $1-25m in early-stage companies that leverage technology discontinuities into go-to-market advantages.
Sarah Tavel is a General Partner @ Benchmark, one of the most successful and renowned venture firms in the world. At Benchmark, Sarah has led rounds in Chainalysis, Hipcamp, Medely, Rekki, Glide, Cambly and more.
In Today's Episode We Discuss:
Will foundation models be commoditised?
What is the end state for the foundation model landscape in 10 years?
How will large cloud provider incumbents approach M&A with smaller foundation model providers?
When will we see marginal revenue exceed marginal cost in the foundation model business model?
Where is the value: the application layer or the infrastructure layer?
How can startups know whether they will be threatened by OpenAI?
What are good tests/questions to know if you are in the path of one of the large foundation models?
How does the business model of SaaS fundamentally change in a world of AI?
Will we see the end of per-seat pricing in a new world of AI?
What is the right way to approach pricing in a world of AI? Consumption? Tokens?
20VC: Mistral's Arthur Mensch: Are Foundation Models Commoditising | How Do We Solve the Problem of Compute | Is There Value in the Application Layer | Open vs Closed: Who Wins and Mistral's Position
Arthur Mensch is the Co-Founder and CEO of Mistral AI. Since its inception in May 2023, Mistral has raised over $520M in funding from investors like Andreeseen Horowitz, General Catalyst, Lightspeed Venture Partners, and Microsoft with a current valuation of $2 billion. Before founding Mistral, Arthur was a research scientist at DeepMind, one of the leading AI institutions in the world.
In Today's Episode with Arthur Mensch We Discuss:
From Models to Team Building: Arthur's Greatest Lessons at DeepMind
What were Arthur's biggest lessons from his time at DeepMind?
How did DeepMind shape how Arthur built Mistral?
Why does Arthur believe smaller teams are better for AI?
Why did Arthur decide to leave DeepMind and start Mistral?
Scaling Mistral to $2 Billion Valuation Within a Year
What made Mistral 7B so successful? What did Arthur learn from the model release?
What are the biggest barriers at Mistral today?
How does Arthur balance the sales and research teams at Mistral?
What does Arthur know now that he wishes he had known when he started Mistral?
How to Win in AI: Open Source, Cost, & Adoption
Why did Arthur open-source some models? Why did he close some?
How quickly will the cost of compute go down? Why does Arthur believe marginal costs will not go to zero?
How will open-sourcing LLMs affect the marginal cost?
Does Arthur think open source is ready for enterprise adoption?
What questions should enterprises be asking about AI adoption today?
What are the biggest challenges to AI adoption today?
The Future of LLMs
What does Arthur think are the largest bottlenecks of model quality today?
Does Arthur think future models will be more generalized or vertical-focused?
What does Arthur think about the future of commoditization in models?
Why is Arthur optimistic about the profitability of the application layer of AI?
How should models differentiate themselves today?
Safety in Numbers: Keeping AI Open
Arthur Mensch is the co-founder of Mistral and the co-author of Deepmind’s pivotal 2022 "Chinchilla" paper.
In September 2023, Mistral released Mistral-7B, an advanced open-source language model that has rapidly become the top choice for developers. Just this week, they introduced a new mixture of experts model – Mixtral — that’s already generating significant buzz among AI developers.
As the battleground around large language models heats up, join us for a conversation with Arthur as he sits down with a16z General Partner Anjney Midha. Together, they delve into the misconceptions and opportunities around open source; the current performance reality of open and closed models; and the compute, data, and algorithmic innovations required to efficiently scale LLMs.
Resources:
Find Arthur on Twitter: https://twitter.com/arthurmensch
Find Anjney on Twitter: https://twitter.com/anjneymidha
Learn more about Mistral: https://mistral.ai
Learn why we invested in Mistral: https://a16z.com/announcement/investing-in-mistral/
Stay Updated:
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Find a16z on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/a16z
Subscribe on your favorite podcast app: https://a16z.simplecast.com/
Follow our host: https://twitter.com/stephsmithio
Please note that the content here is for informational purposes only; should NOT be taken as legal, business, tax, or investment advice or be used to evaluate any investment or security; and is not directed at any investors or potential investors in any a16z fund. a16z and its affiliates may maintain investments in the companies discussed. For more details please see a16z.com/disclosures.
Stay Updated:
Find a16z on YouTube: YouTube
Find a16z on X
Find a16z on LinkedIn
Listen to the a16z Show on Spotify
Listen to the a16z Show on Apple Podcasts
Follow our host: https://twitter.com/eriktorenberg
Please note that the content here is for informational purposes only; should NOT be taken as legal, business, tax, or investment advice or be used to evaluate any investment or security; and is not directed at any investors or potential investors in any a16z fund. a16z and its affiliates may maintain investments in the companies discussed. For more details please see a16z.com/disclosures.
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Mistral 7B and the Open Source Revolution With Arthur Mensch, CEO Mistral AI
Open Source fuels the engine of innovation, according to Arthur Mensch, CEO and co-founder of Mistral AI. Mistral is a French AI company which recently made a splash with releasing Mistral 7B, the most powerful language model for its size to date, and outperforming much larger models. Sarah Guo and Elad Gil sit down with Arthur to discuss why open source could win the AI wars, their $100M+ seed financing, the true nature of scaling laws, why he started his company in France, and what Mistral is building next.
Arthur Mensch is Chief Executive Officer and co-founder of Mistral AI. A graduate of École Polytechnique, Télécom Paris and holder of the Master Mathématiques Vision Apprentissage at Paris Saclay, he completed his thesis in machine learning for functional brain imaging at Inria (Parietal team). He spent two years as a post-doctoral fellow in the Applied Mathematics department at ENS Ulm, where he carried out work in mathematics for optimization and machine learning. In 2020, he joined DeepMind as a researcher, working on large language models, before leaving in 2023 to co-found Mistral AI with Guillaume Lample and Timothee Lacroix.
Show Links:
Arthur’s Linkedin
Mistral
Mistral 7b
Retro: Improving language models by retrieving from trillions of tokens
Chinchilla: Training Compute-Optimal Large Language Models
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Show Notes:
(0:00) - Why he co-founded Mistral
(4:22) - Chinchilla and Proportionality
(6:16) - Mistral 7b
(9:17) - Data and Annotations
(10:33) - Open Source Ecosystem
(17:36) - Proposed Compute and Scale Limits
(19:58) - Threat of Bioweapons
(23:08) - Guardrails and Safety
(29:46) - Mistral Platform
(31:31) - French and European AI Startups
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