The Inference Report

September 8, 2026
AI Labs — News

Mistral's €3 billion funding round signals a deliberate bet that open-weight models, not proprietary systems locked behind API walls, represent the durable competitive advantage in AI infrastructure. The framing around "sovereign" AI, language that appeals to European regulators and governments wary of US tech dominance, suggests the company is positioning itself as both a technical alternative and a geopolitical one. This is less about ideology than market structure. Open weights lower switching costs for enterprises and governments, reduce dependency on any single vendor's terms of service, and create a platform where Mistral profits from tooling, deployment, and integration rather than usage fees alone. The capital raise reflects confidence that this model can sustain a venture-scale business while competing against better-funded closed systems. Whether it succeeds depends on whether developers actually prefer the flexibility and cost profile of open models enough to offset the convenience of managed APIs from larger players.

Sloane Duvall

Mistral
AI Labs — Models

A curated reference of models from major AI labs, with open/closed weight status, input modalities, and context window size. American labs tend towards closed weights models and Chinese labs tend toward open weights models.

usAllenAI
Closed Weights

None

Open Weights
  • AllenAI: Olmo 3 32B Think
    Text66K
usAmazon
Closed Weights
  • Amazon: Nova 2 Lite
    TextVisionVideoFiles1M
  • Amazon: Nova Premier 1.0
    TextVision1M
Open Weights

None

usAnthropic
Closed Weights
  • Anthropic: Claude Fable 5
    TextVisionFiles1M
  • Anthropic: Claude Fable 5.1
    TextVisionFiles1M
  • Anthropic: Claude Haiku 4.5
    TextVisionFiles200K
  • Anthropic: Claude Opus 4.5
    FilesVisionText200K
  • Anthropic: Claude Opus 4.6
    TextVisionFiles1M
  • Anthropic: Claude Opus 4.7
    TextVisionFiles1M
  • Anthropic: Claude Opus 4.8
    TextVisionFiles1M
  • Anthropic: Claude Sonnet 4.5
    TextVisionFiles1M
  • Anthropic: Claude Sonnet 4.6
    TextVisionFiles1M
  • Anthropic: Claude Sonnet 5
    TextVisionFiles1M
  • Claude Opus 5
    TextVisionFiles1M
Open Weights

None

usArcee AI
Closed Weights

None

Open Weights
  • Arcee AI: Trinity Large Thinking
    Text262K
usDeep Cogito
Closed Weights

None

Open Weights
  • Deep Cogito: Cogito v2.1 671B
    Text128K
usGoogle
Closed Weights
  • Google: Gemini 3 Flash Preview
    TextVisionFilesAudioVideo1M
  • Google: Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite
    TextVisionVideoFilesAudio1M
  • Google: Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Preview
    TextVisionVideoFilesAudio1M
  • Google: Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview
    AudioFilesVisionTextVideo1M
  • Google: Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview Custom Tools
    TextAudioVisionVideoFiles1M
  • Google: Gemini 3.5 Flash
    TextVisionVideoFilesAudio1M
  • Google: Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite
    TextVisionVideoFilesAudio1M
  • Google: Gemini 3.6 Flash
    TextVisionVideoFilesAudio1M
  • Google: Gemini 3.7 Flash
    TextVisionVideoFilesAudio1M
  • Google: Gemini 3.8 Flash
    TextVisionVideoFilesAudio1M
  • Google: Lyria 3 Clip Preview
    TextVision1M
  • Google: Lyria 3 Pro Preview
    TextVision1M
  • Google: Nano Banana (Gemini 2.5 Flash Image)
    VisionText33K
  • Google: Nano Banana 2 (Gemini 3.1 Flash Image Preview)
    VisionText66K
  • Google: Nano Banana 2 (Gemini 3.1 Flash Image)
    VisionText131K
  • Google: Nano Banana 2 Lite (Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Image)
    VisionText66K
  • Google: Nano Banana Pro (Gemini 3 Pro Image Preview)
    VisionText66K
  • Google: Nano Banana Pro (Gemini 3 Pro Image)
    VisionText131K
Open Weights
  • Google: Gemma 4 26B A4B
    VisionTextVideo262K
  • Google: Gemma 4 31B
    VisionTextVideo262K
usIBM
Closed Weights

None

Open Weights
  • IBM: Granite 4.0 Micro
    Text131K
  • IBM: Granite 4.2 8B
    Text131K
usInception
Closed Weights
  • Inception: Mercury 2
    Text128K
  • Inception: Mercury 2.5 Preview
    Text260K
Open Weights

None

usMeta (Muse)
Closed Weights
  • Meta: Muse Spark 1.1
    TextVisionVideoFilesAudio1M
  • Meta: Muse Spark 1.2
    TextVisionVideoFilesAudio1M
  • Meta: Muse Spark 1.2 Contributor
    TextVisionVideoFilesAudio1M
  • Meta: Muse Spark 1.3
    TextVisionVideoFilesAudio1M
  • Meta: Muse Spark 1.3 Contributor
    TextVisionVideoFilesAudio1M
Open Weights
  • Meta: Muse Glimmer 30B
    TextVision131K
usNVIDIA
Closed Weights

None

Open Weights
  • NVIDIA: Nemotron 3 Nano 30B A3B
    Text262K
  • NVIDIA: Nemotron 3 Super
    Text1M
  • NVIDIA: Nemotron 3 Ultra
    Text262K
  • NVIDIA: Nemotron 3.5 Lightning
    Text262K
usOpenAI
Closed Weights
  • OpenAI: GPT Audio
    TextAudio128K
  • OpenAI: GPT Audio Mini
    TextAudio128K
  • OpenAI: GPT-5 Image
    VisionTextFiles400K
  • OpenAI: GPT-5 Image Mini
    FilesVisionText400K
  • OpenAI: GPT-5 Pro
    VisionTextFiles400K
  • OpenAI: GPT-5.1
    VisionTextFiles400K
  • OpenAI: GPT-5.1-Codex
    TextVision400K
  • OpenAI: GPT-5.1-Codex-Max
    TextVision400K
  • OpenAI: GPT-5.1-Codex-Mini
    VisionText400K
  • OpenAI: GPT-5.2
    FilesVisionText400K
  • OpenAI: GPT-5.2 Chat
    FilesVisionText128K
  • OpenAI: GPT-5.2 Pro
    VisionTextFiles400K
  • OpenAI: GPT-5.2-Codex
    TextVision400K
  • OpenAI: GPT-5.3-Codex
    TextVisionFiles400K
  • OpenAI: GPT-5.4
    TextVisionFiles1M
  • OpenAI: GPT-5.4 Image 2
    VisionTextFiles272K
  • OpenAI: GPT-5.4 Mini
    FilesVisionText400K
  • OpenAI: GPT-5.4 Nano
    FilesVisionText400K
  • OpenAI: GPT-5.4 Pro
    TextVisionFiles1M
  • OpenAI: GPT-5.5
    FilesVisionText1M
  • OpenAI: GPT-5.5 Pro
    FilesVisionText1M
  • OpenAI: GPT-5.6 Luna
    FilesVisionText1M
  • OpenAI: GPT-5.6 Luna Pro
    FilesVisionText1M
  • OpenAI: GPT-5.6 Sol
    FilesVisionText1M
  • OpenAI: GPT-5.6 Sol Pro
    FilesVisionText1M
  • OpenAI: GPT-5.6 Terra
    FilesVisionText1M
  • OpenAI: GPT-5.6 Terra Pro
    FilesVisionText1M
  • OpenAI: GPT-6 Astra
    FilesVisionText1M
  • OpenAI: GPT-6 Astra Pro
    FilesVisionText1M
Open Weights

None

usPerceptron
Closed Weights
  • Perceptron: Perceptron Mk1
    TextVisionVideo33K
Open Weights

None

usPerplexity
Closed Weights
  • Perplexity: Sonar Pro Search
    TextVision200K
Open Weights

None

usPoolside
Closed Weights

None

Open Weights
  • Poolside: Laguna S 2.1
    Text1M
  • Poolside: Laguna XS 2.1
    Text262K
usReka AI
Closed Weights

None

Open Weights
  • Reka Edge
    VisionTextVideo16K
usRelace
Closed Weights

None

Open Weights
  • Relace: Relace Apply 3
    Text256K
  • Relace: Relace Search
    Text256K
usThinking Machines
Closed Weights

None

Open Weights
  • Thinking Machines: Inkling
    TextVisionAudio1M
  • Thinking Machines: Inkling Small
    TextVisionAudio1M
usxAI
Closed Weights
  • SpaceXAI: Grok 4.20
    TextVisionFiles2M
  • SpaceXAI: Grok 4.20 Multi-Agent
    TextVisionFiles2M
  • SpaceXAI: Grok 4.3
    TextVisionFiles1M
  • SpaceXAI: Grok 4.5
    TextVisionFiles500K
  • SpaceXAI: Grok 4.6
    TextVisionFiles500K
  • SpaceXAI: Grok Build 0.1
    TextVisionFiles256K
Open Weights

None

frMistral AI
Closed Weights

None

Open Weights
  • Mistral: Devstral 2 2512
    TextFiles262K
  • Mistral: Ministral 3 14B 2512
    TextVision262K
  • Mistral: Ministral 3 3B 2512
    TextVision131K
  • Mistral: Ministral 3 8B 2512
    TextVision262K
  • Mistral: Mistral Large 3 2512
    TextVisionFiles262K
  • Mistral: Mistral Medium 3.5
    TextVisionFiles262K
  • Mistral: Mistral Small 4
    TextVision262K
  • Mistral: Voxtral Small 24B 2507
    TextAudioFiles33K
cnAlibaba (Qwen)
Closed Weights
  • Qwen: Qwen3 Coder Flash
    Text1M
  • Qwen: Qwen3 Coder Plus
    Text1M
  • Qwen: Qwen3 Max
    Text262K
  • Qwen: Qwen3 Max Thinking
    Text262K
  • Qwen: Qwen3.6 Flash
    TextVisionVideo1M
  • Qwen: Qwen3.6 Max Preview
    Text262K
  • Qwen: Qwen3.6 Plus
    TextVisionVideo1M
  • Qwen: Qwen3.7 Flash
    TextVisionVideo1M
  • Qwen: Qwen3.7 Max
    Text1M
  • Qwen: Qwen3.7 Plus
    TextVision1M
Open Weights
  • Qwen: Qwen3 Coder Next
    Text262K
  • Qwen: Qwen3 Next 80B A3B Instruct
    Text262K
  • Qwen: Qwen3 Next 80B A3B Thinking
    Text262K
  • Qwen: Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct
    TextVision262K
  • Qwen: Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Thinking
    TextVision131K
  • Qwen: Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Instruct
    TextVision262K
  • Qwen: Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Thinking
    TextVision262K
  • Qwen: Qwen3 VL 32B Instruct
    TextVision131K
  • Qwen: Qwen3 VL 8B Instruct
    VisionText262K
  • Qwen: Qwen3 VL 8B Thinking
    VisionText131K
  • Qwen: Qwen3.5 397B A17B
    TextVisionVideo262K
  • Qwen: Qwen3.5-122B-A10B
    TextVisionVideo262K
  • Qwen: Qwen3.5-27B
    TextVisionVideo262K
  • Qwen: Qwen3.5-35B-A3B
    TextVisionVideo262K
  • Qwen: Qwen3.5-9B
    TextVisionVideo262K
  • Qwen: Qwen3.6 27B
    TextVisionVideo262K
  • Qwen: Qwen3.6 35B A3B
    TextVisionVideo262K
  • Qwen: Qwen3.8 2.4T A95B
    Text1M
  • Qwen: Qwen3.8 27B
    TextVisionVideo1M
  • Qwen: Qwen3.8 Flash
    TextVisionVideo1M
  • Qwen: Qwen3.8 Max (0902)
    TextVisionVideo1M
cnByteDance
Closed Weights
  • Seed: Seed 1.6
    VisionTextVideo262K
  • Seed: Seed 1.6 Flash
    VisionTextVideo262K
  • Seed: Seed 2.1 Turbo
    TextVisionVideo262K
  • Seed: Seed-2.0-Code
    TextVisionVideo262K
  • Seed: Seed-2.0-Lite
    TextVisionVideo262K
  • Seed: Seed-2.0-Mini
    TextVisionVideo262K
Open Weights

None

cnDeepSeek
Closed Weights

None

Open Weights
  • DeepSeek: DeepSeek V3.1 Terminus
    Text164K
  • DeepSeek: DeepSeek V3.2
    Text164K
  • DeepSeek: DeepSeek V3.2 Exp
    Text164K
  • DeepSeek: DeepSeek V4 Flash 0423
    Text1M
  • DeepSeek: DeepSeek V4 Flash 0731
    Text1M
  • DeepSeek: DeepSeek V4 Flash Vision Exp
    TextVision1M
  • DeepSeek: DeepSeek V4 Pro 0423
    Text1M
  • DeepSeek: DeepSeek V4 Pro 0813
    Text1M
cnMiniMax
Closed Weights
  • MiniMax: MiniMax M2-her
    Text66K
Open Weights
  • MiniMax: MiniMax M2
    Text205K
  • MiniMax: MiniMax M2.1
    Text205K
  • MiniMax: MiniMax M2.5
    Text205K
  • MiniMax: MiniMax M2.7
    Text205K
  • MiniMax: MiniMax M3
    TextVisionVideo1M
cnMoonshot AI
Closed Weights

None

Open Weights
  • MoonshotAI: Kimi K2 Thinking
    Text262K
  • MoonshotAI: Kimi K2.5
    TextVision262K
  • MoonshotAI: Kimi K2.6
    TextVision262K
  • MoonshotAI: Kimi K2.7 Code
    TextVision262K
  • MoonshotAI: Kimi K3
    TextVisionVideo1M
cnXiaomi
Closed Weights

None

Open Weights
  • Xiaomi: MiMo-V2.5
    TextAudioVisionVideo1M
  • Xiaomi: MiMo-V2.5-Pro
    Text1M
cnZ.ai
Closed Weights

None

Open Weights
  • Z.ai: GLM 4.6
    Text205K
  • Z.ai: GLM 4.6V
    VisionTextVideo131K
  • Z.ai: GLM 4.7
    Text205K
  • Z.ai: GLM 4.7 Flash
    Text203K
  • Z.ai: GLM 5
    Text205K
  • Z.ai: GLM 5 Turbo
    Text203K
  • Z.ai: GLM 5.1
    Text205K
  • Z.ai: GLM 5.2
    Text1M
  • Z.ai: GLM 5.3
    Text1M
  • Z.ai: GLM 5.3 Flash
    TextVisionVideo1M
  • Z.ai: GLM 5V Turbo
    VisionTextVideo203K
krUpstage
Closed Weights
  • Upstage: Solar Pro 3
    Text131K
  • Upstage: Solar Pro 4
    Text524K
Open Weights

None