Mistral AI vs OpenAI: Founders, CEOs and History
Mistral AI was founded in 2023 by Arthur Mensch, Guillaume Lample, Timothée Lacroix and is led by Arthur Mensch. OpenAI was founded in 2015 by Sam Altman, Elon Musk, Greg Brockman and is led by Sam Altman.
Company facts
Mistral AI
- Founded
- 2023
- Headquarters
- Paris, Île-de-France, France
- Current CEO
- Arthur Mensch
- Employees
- 1,000
OpenAI
- Founded
- 2015
- Headquarters
- San Francisco, California, United States
- Current CEO
- Sam Altman
- Employees
- 4,500
Founders
Mistral AI
Arthur Mensch
Arthur Mensch is co-founder and CEO of Mistral AI. He left Google DeepMind in 2023 to start the company and has led every funding round, from the ~$119 million (€105 million) seed in 2023 to the ~$3.39 billion (€3 billion) Samsung-led round in 2026.
Guillaume Lample
Guillaume Lample is co-founder and Chief Scientist of Mistral AI, leading model research and training across the Mistral, Mixtral, Magistral and Mistral Large families.
Timothée Lacroix
Timothée Lacroix is co-founder and CTO of Mistral AI, responsible for training infrastructure, the developer platform and the company's compute build-out.
OpenAI
Sam Altman
Sam Altman co-chaired OpenAI at its 2015 founding and became CEO in 2019. He negotiated the Microsoft partnership, oversaw the ChatGPT launch in 2022, survived the board's brief attempt to remove him in November 2023, and led the October 2025 recapitalization…
Elon Musk
Elon Musk was an early co-chair and funder of OpenAI and left its board in February 2018. He later founded rival xAI in 2023 and sued OpenAI, Sam Altman and Greg Brockman in 2024, arguing the company abandoned its nonprofit mission.
Greg Brockman
Greg Brockman left his role as Stripe CTO to co-found OpenAI in 2015 and serves as president.
Ilya Sutskever
Ilya Sutskever was OpenAI's chief scientist from 2015 to May 2024, overseeing work behind the GPT series and ChatGPT. He voted to remove Sam Altman in November 2023, then said he regretted it. After leaving OpenAI he co-founded Safe Superintelligence Inc.
CEOs and their tenures
Mistral AI
- Arthur Mensch2023–present
Chief Executive Officer & Co-Founder
Leads strategy and fundraising; took Mistral from a ~$119 million (€105 million) seed in 2023 to a valuation above ~$23.7 billion (€21 billion) in 2026.
Source - Guillaume Lample2023–present
Chief Scientist & Co-Founder
Leads model research and training.
Source - Timothée Lacroix2023–present
Chief Technology Officer & Co-Founder
Leads infrastructure and engineering, including the compute build-out.
Source
OpenAI
- Greg Brockman2015–present
President and Co-founder
Former Stripe CTO; returned from a 2024 sabbatical and remains president.
Source - Mira Murati2018–2024
Chief Technology Officer and interim CEO (former)
Served as interim CEO for two days in November 2023; left OpenAI in 2024.
Source - Sam Altman2019–present
Chief Executive Officer
Co-founder and CEO who turned OpenAI from a research lab into a consumer and enterprise platform; briefly removed by the board in November 2023 and reinstated days later.
Source - Fidji Simo2025–2026
CEO of Applications (former)
Former Instacart CEO who ran ChatGPT and other applications; stepped down from the full-time role in July 2026 for health reasons and stayed on as an adviser.
Source - Vijaye Raji2025–present
CTO of Applications
Statsig founder who joined via the 2025 acquisition to head product engineering for ChatGPT and Codex.
Source
Timeline: Mistral AI and OpenAI side by side
2015OpenAI
OpenAI founded as a nonprofit
OpenAI launched in December 2015 as a nonprofit AI research lab.
2019OpenAI
Capped-profit entity and Microsoft deal
OpenAI created a capped-profit subsidiary and received a $1 billion investment from Microsoft.
2022OpenAI
ChatGPT launch
ChatGPT launched on November 30, 2022 and reached 100 million users faster than any prior consumer app.
2023Mistral AI
Mistral AI Founded in Paris
Arthur Mensch, Guillaume Lample, and Timothée Lacroix founded Mistral AI in Paris, raising a historic $113M seed round.
2023Mistral AI
Release of Mistral 7B via Magnet Link
Released Mistral 7B under Apache 2.0 via a viral torrent magnet link, outperforming all previous open models of its size.
2023Mistral AI
Invention of Mixtral 8x7B Sparse MoE
Unveiled Mixtral 8x7B, pioneering sparse mixture-of-experts architectures and outperforming GPT-3.5 across reasoning tasks.
2023Mistral AI
Series A Funding at $2.0B Unicorn Valuation
Raised $415 million in Series A funding led by Andreessen Horowitz and Lightspeed, reaching unicorn status in seven months.
2023OpenAI
Board crisis
The nonprofit board removed Sam Altman in November 2023; he returned as CEO within days and the board was rebuilt.
2024Mistral AI
Microsoft Alliance & Launch of Mistral Large
Announced partnership with Microsoft, integrating Mistral Large natively into the Azure Model Catalog alongside OpenAI.
2024Mistral AI
Launch of Codestral & Le Chat Multilingual Suite
Debuted Codestral for 80+ programming languages and launched Le Chat consumer and enterprise conversational assistant.
2024Mistral AI
Series B Funding at $6.0B Valuation Led by General Catalyst
Closed $640 million Series B round at a $6.0 billion valuation, led by General Catalyst with European industrial backers.
2025OpenAI
Acquired Jony Ive's io
OpenAI agreed to buy hardware startup io for just under $6.5 billion in an all-equity deal.
2025OpenAI
Recapitalization into OpenAI Group PBC
In October 2025 the for-profit became a public benefit corporation controlled by the OpenAI Foundation; Microsoft received about 27%.
2026Mistral AI
Crosses $100M ARR as Europe's Sovereign AI Champion
Achieved annualized revenue exceeding $100 million, powering European banking, logistics, and global cloud ecosystems.
2026OpenAI
$122B funding round
OpenAI closed $122 billion in committed capital at an $852 billion post-money valuation on March 31, 2026.
2026OpenAI
Run rate nears $70B
Axios reported in September 2026 that annual recurring revenue was nearing $70 billion.
Acquisitions
OpenAI
- io Products2025$6.5B
- Statsig2025$1.1B
- Rockset2024Undisclosed
- Global Illumination2023Undisclosed
Questions about Mistral AI vs OpenAI
Who is the CEO of Mistral AI SAS and OpenAI?
Mistral AI SAS is led by Arthur Mensch and OpenAI is led by Sam Altman. Both serve as the top executive responsible for the company's strategy, operations, and financial performance.
When was Mistral AI SAS founded vs OpenAI?
OpenAI was founded in 2015 — 8 years before Mistral AI SAS, which was founded in 2023. OpenAI's longer operating history gives it a deeper track record but also potentially more institutional inertia compared to the younger Mistral AI SAS.
How many employees does Mistral AI SAS have compared to OpenAI?
Mistral AI SAS employs approximately 1,000 people, while OpenAI employs approximately 4,500. OpenAI has the larger workforce at 4,500 employees, compared to Mistral AI SAS's 1,000. A higher headcount does not necessarily imply greater efficiency — it often reflects differences in business model (e.g., manufacturing vs. software).
Where are Mistral AI SAS and OpenAI headquartered?
Mistral AI SAS is headquartered in France and OpenAI is headquartered in United States. Their different home markets mean they may face different regulatory frameworks, tax regimes, and currency exposure.
Who founded Mistral AI SAS and OpenAI?
Mistral AI SAS was founded by Arthur Mensch, Guillaume Lample, Timothée Lacroix. OpenAI was founded by Sam Altman, Elon Musk, Greg Brockman, Ilya Sutskever.
Which company has a longer operating history — Mistral AI SAS or OpenAI?
OpenAI has been operating for approximately 11 years, making it the more established of the two companies. Mistral AI SAS has been in operation for around 3 years. A longer operating history often signals greater institutional resilience and brand recognition, though it can also mean slower adaptation to new market conditions.
Figures come from each company's filings and the sources linked beside them. Amounts reported in another currency are shown in US dollars at an approximate rate and marked with ~. Back to the Mistral AI vs OpenAI overview