Introducing Mistral-Large on Azure in collaboration with Mistral AI

Cloud Computing

4 min read

The AI industry is undergoing significant change with growing interest in more efficient and cost-effective models, emblematic of a broader trend of technological advancement. At the helm is Mistral AI, an innovator and pioneer. Your commitment to advancing the open source community and achieving exceptional performance aligns with Microsoft’s commitment to building trustworthy, scalable and responsible AI solutions.

Today we are announcing a multi-year partnership between Microsoft and Mistral AI, a recognized leader in generative artificial intelligence. Both companies are driven by an unwavering commitment to innovation and practical applications, bridging the gap between groundbreaking research and real-world solutions.

Mistral Large

Introducing Mistral Large, our most advanced Large Language (LLM) model

This partnership with Microsoft gives Mistral AI access to Azure’s state-of-the-art AI infrastructureto accelerate the development and deployment of its next-generation large language models (LLMs) and represents an opportunity for Mistral AI to explore new commercial opportunities, expand into global markets and foster ongoing research collaborations.

“We are very pleased about this partnership with Microsoft. With Azure’s state-of-the-art AI infrastructure, we are reaching a new milestone in our expansion, bringing our innovative research and practical applications to new customers everywhere. Together, we are committed to driving impactful advances in the AI industry and delivering unparalleled value to our customers and partners worldwide.”

Arthur Mensch, Chief Executive Officer, Mistral AI

Microsoft’s partnership with Mistral AI focuses on three key areas:

Supercomputing infrastructure: Microsoft will support Mistral AI with the Azure AI supercomputing infrastructure, providing best-in-class performance and scalability for AI training and inference workloads for Mistral AI’s flagship models.
Scale to market: Microsoft and Mistral AI will make Mistral AI’s premium models available to customers through Models as a Service (MaaS). Azure AI Studio And Azure Machine Learning model catalog. In addition to the OpenAI models, the 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 models is available from today. Azure’s AI-optimized infrastructure and enterprise-grade capabilities provide Mistral AI with additional opportunities to promote, sell and distribute its models to Microsoft customers worldwide.
AI research and development: Microsoft and Mistral AI will explore collaboration to train purpose-built models for select customers, including European public sector workloads.

Expand your AI capabilities with Azure and Mistral AI

In November 2023, Microsoft presented the integration of Mistral 7B into the Microsoft Ignite Azure AI Model Catalog accessible via Azure AI Studio and Azure Machine Learning. We are pleased to announce Mistral AI’s flagship commercial model, Mistral Large, initially available on Azure AI and the Mistral AI Platform, representing a notable expansion of our offering. Mistral Large is a general-purpose language model that can cover any text-based use case thanks to state-of-the-art reasoning and knowledge features. It is proficient in code and mathematics, capable of processing dozens of documents in a single call, and proficient in French, German, Spanish, and Italian (in addition to English).

This is the latest addition to Mistral AI’s premium models to Models as a Service (MaaS). Azure AI Studio and Azure Machine Learning offers Microsoft customers a diverse selection of the best cutting-edge and open source models for building and deploying custom AI applications, paving the way for new types of AI-driven innovation.

“We tested Mistral Large via Azure AI Studio in a use case aimed at internal efficiency. Performance was comparable to state-of-the-art models with even better latency. We look forward to further exploring this technology within our company.”

Philippe Rambach, Chief AI Officer, Schneider Electric

“After trying Mistral Large during early access, we were impressed by its performance in medical terminology. As we continue to innovate in healthcare, we are open to collaborations that can help us and our partners grow together. Mistral AI represents an exciting opportunity for shared progress in artificial intelligence, both in France and internationally.”

Nacim Rahal, Senior Director, Data and AI, Doctolib

“Mistral’s AI models have been critical to improving productivity and collaboration at CMA CGM. Your expanded skills have significantly improved the performance of our in-house personal assistant MAIA. Employees can now quickly access and interact with information like never before. We believe Mistral AI on Azure is the right choice to support our employees and drive innovation across our organization.”

Séverine Grégoire, Head of Digital, Innovation and AI at CMA CGM

Microsoft is committed to supporting global AI innovation and growth, providing world-class AI infrastructure for data centers, and securely developing technologies to equip individuals with the skills they need to use AI effectively. This partnership with Mistral AI is based on a shared commitment to developing trustworthy and secure AI systems and products. It strengthens Microsoft’s ongoing efforts to improve our AI offerings and deliver unparalleled value to our customers. Additionally, integration with AI Studio ensures customers can use it Azure AI content security and responsible AI tools that further improve the security and reliability of AI solutions.

Discover solutions with Azure and Mistral AI today

Visit the Mistral Large Model Map and sign in with your Azure subscription to get started with Mistral Large on Azure AI today. You can also read the technical blog to learn more how to use Mistral Large on Azure AI. Visit Mistral AI blog to get deeper insights into the model.