Hello and welcome back to Equity, the Tech Ranch Podcast, where we unpack the numbers and the nuance behind the headlines.

This is Alex and today is February 28, 2024, not the last day of February this year, there's one more day.

It's a special February, but this is our Wednesday show, Welcome.

This is where we dig into the critical startup and venture capital stories from the week thus far and on today's show

we have a number of absolute bangers.

We're talking about Microsoft putting money into Mistral AI, Thrassehoose Bankruptcy, Glean, an Enterprise AI and Megarounds in the AI era, and

then two new venture funds focused on early-stage startups, neither of which that have

AI in their name. To start us off, let's talk about Microsoft putting money into Mistral.

Yesterday, Mistral AI, the Paris-based AI startup that's working on foundational models that

we've discussed on this show several times, announced a new large language model that could

rival Open AI's GPT4, a chat assistant, and a distribution

partnership with Microsoft. But most importantly, the company also raised

for Microsoft 15 million euro or about 16.3 million dollars. Now this check

was not structured as a priced equity round. Instead the money will convert to

equity during Mr. Rawl's fundraise, so there's no valuation change to report.

But I think the deal tells us quite a lot.

First of all, recall that Mr. All raised about $385 million or $450 million back in December of

2023.

That's just not very long ago, and I think it implies that the capital here is entirely strategic instead of

needed in any cash sense.

Second, Microsoft is spreading its bets somewhat.

Even if its investment into Mistrau is worth less than 1% of the company's current $2 billion

...