Mistral AI, the French AI company valued at $13.8 billion, announced its first acquisition, buying Koyeb, a Paris-based startup specializing in AI app deployment. In other tech news, Anthropic released a new version of its Sonnet model, and SpaceX veterans secured $50 million in Series A funding for their optical communications startup, Mesh Optical Technologies. These developments highlight the rapid evolution and investment in the AI and related infrastructure sectors.
Mistral AI's acquisition of Koyeb, announced recently, is a strategic move to bolster its cloud ambitions. Koyeb, founded in 2020 by former employees of French cloud provider Scaleway, simplifies AI app deployment and manages the underlying infrastructure. This acquisition will accelerate Mistral AI's plans for Mistral Compute, an AI cloud infrastructure offering announced in June 2025. According to TechCrunch, this deal confirms Mistral's ambition to become a full-stack player in the AI space.
Anthropic, another key player in the AI landscape, released Sonnet 4.6, the latest iteration of its mid-size model. The new model, which will be the default for Free and Pro plan users, emphasizes improvements in coding, instruction-following, and computer use. The beta release of Sonnet 4.6 boasts a context window of 1 million tokens, twice the size of the previous largest window for Sonnet. This expanded context window allows for handling entire codebases, lengthy contracts, or numerous research papers in a single request, as reported by TechCrunch. The release follows the launch of Opus 4.6 just two weeks prior, with an updated Haiku model expected soon.
Meanwhile, SpaceX veterans have raised $50 million in a Series A funding round for Mesh Optical Technologies. The Los Angeles-based startup, led by Thrive Capital, was founded by engineers who previously worked on optical communications links for SpaceX's Starlink satellites. Mesh aims to mass-produce optical transceivers, which convert optical signals into electrical signals for computers. CEO Travis Brashears, President Cameron Ramos, and VP of Product Serena Grown-Haeberli identified the market opportunity while designing a new generation of compute-hungry SpaceX satellites, according to TechCrunch.
These developments come as the AI industry faces increasing challenges related to infrastructure costs. As reported by TechCrunch, the price of DRAM chips has jumped significantly in the last year, highlighting the growing importance of memory in running AI models. "When we talk about the cost of AI infrastructure, the focus is usually on Nvidia and GPUs but memory is an increasingly important part of the picture," the article stated. Companies that can effectively manage memory will be better positioned to succeed in the competitive AI landscape.
In a related development, Climactic, an early-stage venture firm, launched a hybrid fund to support startups navigating the "valley of death," the critical stage where companies struggle to scale production and sales. Josh Felser, co-founder and managing partner of Climactic, noted the particular challenges faced by companies producing physical goods. "They are chicken and egg stuck," Felser told TechCrunch, highlighting the need for innovative funding solutions.
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