

This makes it easier for many to try Mistral because many already use MS Foundry and you can easily switch models. In contrast, getting through the bureaucracy of negotiating a contract with yet another provider, Mistral, is harder.
However, Mistral via MS is not as sovereign as Mistral directly even though Microsoft wants you to believe that:
In a joint interview with Reuters, Microsoft President Brad Smith and Mistral CEO Arthur Mensch said the partnership aimed to deliver such sovereignty while allowing access to US software and security features.


















They say the plan to follow the Deepseek approach, which would be “open-weight”, not “open source”.