French artificial intelligence startup Mistral is in advanced talks to raise up to $1 billion in equity, led by Abu Dhabi’s MGX fund, Bloomberg reports, citing sources familiar with the matter.

The ambitious fundraising is part of a broader capital push that includes discussions with Bpifrance SACA and other French lenders to secure several hundred million euros in debt.

The move signals a strategic acceleration for Mistral, one of Europe’s most promising AI companies, as it seeks to establish itself as a global force capable of challenging the dominance of American players like OpenAI, Anthropic, and Google DeepMind. Founded in 2023 by former Meta and DeepMind researchers, the Paris-based firm has quickly grown into a cornerstone of France’s sovereign AI strategy.

Mistral has already raised over $1.19 billion, achieving a $6.5 billion valuation following its Series B in June 2024. The company focuses on open-weight large language models (LLMs) — AI models that are accessible and modifiable by developers, offering transparency and adaptability. Its flagship product, the Le Chat chatbot, is widely seen as Europe’s response to ChatGPT.

Unlike its U.S. counterparts that mostly operate as closed platforms, Mistral’s approach to openness has drawn support from European enterprises and governments seeking alternatives to U.S.-controlled AI. Clients include BNP Paribas, AXA, Stellantis, and Veolia, with some reportedly signing contracts worth more than $100 million.

Infrastructure Expansion: Europe’s Largest AI Campus

Beyond software, Mistral is part of a landmark venture with MGX, Bpifrance, and Nvidia to build Europe’s largest AI data center campus near Paris. The massive facility will house thousands of Nvidia’s Blackwell chips—considered the gold standard for AI training—and is expected to scale up to 1.4 gigawatts of power capacity by 2028.

The facility is designed to function as Europe’s core AI compute hub, a critical asset as the region races to build independent capacity in response to fears of over-reliance on U.S.-based infrastructure like Microsoft Azure or Google Cloud. The French government, led by President Emmanuel Macron, has thrown its full weight behind the initiative as part of the France 2030 plan, which earmarks over €100 billion for AI and digital sovereignty.

France’s close alignment with the UAE on AI development has also deepened. The Emirati government has committed to investing €50 billion in AI infrastructure and ventures across France, including direct support for Mistral. The investment reflects growing geopolitical cooperation in AI between Europe and the Gulf — a move meant to counterbalance China and the U.S. in the emerging tech race.

This collaboration has also helped Mistral emerge as a key beneficiary of the UAE’s $100 billion MGX fund, created to make the Emirates a global AI leader. The fund has made Europe a focus, particularly France, thanks to its pro-innovation regulation and deep scientific talent pool.

Mistral’s rise is not just a success story for European tech; it’s a pivotal moment in the global AI power struggle. The EU has repeatedly raised concerns about being left behind as U.S. firms dominate the AI race. Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang, speaking at Paris’ VivaTech conference, strongly endorsed the need for “sovereign AI” — AI infrastructure controlled and owned locally — calling it essential for cultural autonomy and industrial competitiveness.

Mistral embodies that vision. With robust public and private backing, technical credibility, and a clear strategic mission, the company is one of the few European firms with a real chance of shaping the global AI narrative.

If successful, the fresh capital injection will fuel:

• Expansion of R&D to improve its open-weight models.
• Hiring and infrastructure scale-up.
• Acceleration of its European AI campus project.
• Commercial rollout across new verticals, including government, healthcare, and automotive.

The company’s growth also sends a message to other AI hopefuls in Europe that sovereign innovation is not only possible but fundable — provided there’s scale, clarity of vision, and alignment with national strategic priorities.

For Mistral, this is more than a funding round. It’s a shot at building Europe’s first truly global AI company, and potentially the strongest non-U.S. counterweight in the generative AI space to date.

GitHub CEO Thomas Dohmke has made a forceful case that artificial intelligence, rather than replacing software engineers, will become a massive accelerator for their productivity — and will drive a surge in demand for human developers at the most forward-thinking companies.

“The companies that are the smartest are going to hire more developers,” Dohmke said in a recent podcast interview. “Because if you 10x a single developer, then 10 developers can do 100x.”

His remarks come at a time of heightened anxiety in the global tech industry. Tech giants including Amazon, Google, Meta, and Salesforce have laid off tens of thousands of employees since 2023, with many citing restructuring for an “AI-first” future. That wave of job cuts has fueled fears that artificial intelligence is not just enhancing productivity — it’s replacing human workers.

But Dohmke, whose company GitHub is at the center of the AI-software development revolution through its AI assistant Copilot, offered a counter-narrative: AI doesn’t reduce the need for developers — it expands what they can do. He called AI a “force multiplier” that amplifies the capability of engineering teams and unlocks more complex and ambitious projects that were previously out of reach.

“AI Is Not a Shortcut to Billion-Dollar Startups”

Dohmke was especially dismissive of the idea that AI tools have made coding skills irrelevant. He acknowledged that while AI has democratized access to programming, allowing even novices to build apps or automate workflows, professional software development still requires deep technical expertise, especially in enterprise environments.

“I think the idea that AI without any coding skills lets you just build a billion-dollar business is mistaken,” he said. “Because if that were the case, everyone would do it.”

Far from eliminating the need for developers, AI has only sharpened the demand for skilled engineers who can integrate, manage, and scale the increasingly complex systems modern businesses rely on, he indicated.

Layoffs, Panic, and a Fork in the Road

Dohmke’s comments land in the midst of a growing divide in the tech world. On one side are leaders and analysts who warn that AI — especially generative tools like ChatGPT and Claude — could render millions of jobs obsolete. IBM, for instance, said last year it would pause hiring for roles it believed AI could eventually replace. Goldman Sachs projected that 300 million jobs could be affected by AI globally.

On the other side are AI optimists like Dohmke, who argue that the technology will create new opportunities even as it reshapes existing workflows. From his perspective, companies are at a fork in the road: those that embrace AI to empower developers and scale faster will pull ahead, while those that see it only as a cost-cutting tool may fall behind.

“The best companies are hiring more engineers, not fewer,” he said. “Because AI helps you move faster — not shrink your team.”

Dohmke also emphasized that while AI helps speed up software creation, it hasn’t reduced the overall workload for development teams. In fact, by enabling faster iteration and easier prototyping, AI has led teams to take on even more projects.

Instead of drying up development pipelines, AI has widened them. We haven’t seen a single company eliminate their developer workload, Dohmke said, adding that in fact, they’re just doing more with the same or slightly bigger teams.

He called this the “most exciting time to be a developer,” explaining that AI tools have brought the long-held dream of turning an idea over coffee into a working app by nightfall closer to reality than ever before.

GitHub and Microsoft Betting Big on Human-AI Collaboration

Dohmke’s stance aligns with Microsoft’s broader strategy around AI, which emphasizes human-AI collaboration, not replacement. GitHub Copilot, one of the first widely used generative AI coding tools, now serves over 1.5 million developers and is deeply embedded into workflows at major companies. Microsoft has described it as one of the most transformative productivity tools in recent memory.

By enabling developers to write code faster, fix bugs in real time, and prototype with ease, Copilot is a prime example of how AI can augment human potential, not sideline it.

As the tech industry tries to find its footing in the post-AI boom era, Dohmke’s remarks are a timely reminder that while job roles may evolve, the core value of human ingenuity remains. AI, far from being a job destroyer, may prove to be the ultimate catalyst for growth — for developers, and for the companies wise enough to invest in them.

The GitHub’s top executive is thus saying that the future doesn’t belong to companies cutting staff and betting solely on machines. It belongs to those building alongside them — with developers still firmly at the wheel.

The United States has collected nearly $100 billion in tariff revenue so far in 2025, and that figure could triple to $300 billion by the end of the year, according to Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent.

Speaking during a White House cabinet meeting on Tuesday, Bessent said the steep uptick in revenue began in the second quarter following President Donald Trump’s implementation of a near-universal 10% duty on all U.S. imports, alongside increased tariffs on steel, aluminum, autos, and other key goods.

“So we could expect that that could be well over $300 billion by the end of the year,” Bessent said, referring to the calendar year ending December 31, 2025. He added that the Congressional Budget Office’s long-term forecast of $2.8 trillion in tariff income over the next decade was likely an underestimation, as collections continue to accelerate.

The Treasury’s internal figures show that the administration collected a record $22.8 billion in gross customs duties in May alone — nearly four times the $6.2 billion collected in the same month last year. This brought total collections to $86.1 billion for the first eight months of fiscal 2025 and $63.4 billion for the first five months of the calendar year. By June 30, combined customs and excise tax collections had already topped $122 billion, with more increases expected in the Treasury’s next budget report due Friday.

Trump’s sweeping tariff plan — which includes a 50% tariff on copper imports and expected duties on semiconductors and pharmaceuticals — is the most aggressive trade policy seen in recent U.S. history. He said the “big money” will begin flowing from August 1, when higher reciprocal tariffs will take effect across nearly all trading partners. Trump hinted that countries could still negotiate for lower tariffs, but said letters had already gone out to key nations, signaling the start of a new phase in his protectionist trade campaign.

But while the Trump administration hails the ballooning tariff revenues as a success, economists and business leaders remain skeptical of its long-term benefits. Many argue the tariffs are already beginning to backfire — stoking inflation, disrupting supply chains, and burdening American businesses and consumers with higher prices.

“Copper prices soared by 10% today, hitting an all-time record high, following Trump’s statement that he will impose a 50% tariff on imports,” said Peter Schiff, Chief Economist and Global Strategist at Euro Pacific. “If this is the case, American businesses will pay a lot more than 10% extra to buy copper, raising prices for all products that use copper.”

Copper is a critical industrial metal, used in housing, electronics, electric vehicles, renewable energy grids, and defense equipment. Analysts warn that the cost increase will ripple through the economy, pushing up prices on consumer goods, industrial inputs, and key infrastructure projects.

Schiff, a long-time critic of protectionist policies, also warned that the latest round of tariffs — including the additional 25% duties on imports from South Korea and Japan — will significantly raise the cost of living for ordinary Americans.

“As I warned, Trump just imposed an additional 25% tariff on imports from South Korea and Japan,” Schiff said. “As I also guessed early on, all the talk of nations begging Trump for trade deals was BS. Consumers need to brace for much higher prices and get used to higher interest rates.”

The criticism highlights a growing divide between the White House’s portrayal of tariff policy as a fiscal win and the concerns of market economists who say the short-term revenue boost masks deeper structural problems. Several industries, particularly in manufacturing and construction, have voiced concern over rising input costs, delayed imports, and unstable pricing.

Business lobby groups are also beginning to push back, warning that the August 1 tariff escalation could trigger retaliatory measures from trading partners, harm export prospects, and chill investor confidence.

Still, the Trump administration remains defiant, reiterating that the U.S. will no longer let other countries take advantage of American workers and producers. This reinforces Trump’s belief that the tariffs will ultimately restore balance to U.S. trade and fuel domestic production.

However, with U.S. inflation still uncomfortably high and interest rates lingering at elevated levels, analysts worry that the added costs from the tariff wave could complicate monetary policy and deepen voter unease heading into an election year.