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October 17, 2025

The AI ‘genius’ behind Mistral’s meteoric rise

Guillaume Lample helped build Meta’s flagship LLM Llama before teaming up with Arthur Mensch and Timothée Lacroix


Mistral cofounder Guillaume Lample announced the release of a host of new open-source models. © PAUL BLIND

Amid Paris-based AI startup Mistral’s meteoric rise over the past two years, cofounder and CEO Arthur Mensch became a familiar face to those in and around the European tech ecosystem — the charismatic frontman spearheading the region’s best shot at competing with American giants like Anthropic and OpenAI. 

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Daphné Leprince-Ringuet

Daphné Leprince-Ringuet is a senior reporter for Sifted, based in Paris. She covers French tech and writes Sifted's AI and Deeptech newsletter . You can find her on X and LinkedIn

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