Mistral’s $2B Valuation Has a Dotcom-Era Ring To It

Written By Debra Aho Williamson

12/4/23—The number of highly funded generative AI startups is continuing to climb. 2024 will be a year of mayhem and mergers as Big Tech incumbents face off against (and also try to merge with) their VC-backed rivals.

If you were around during the late 90s dotcom bubble, this will have a very familiar ring to it. No, not everything is the same -- there's no sign of an IPO frenzy yet, and losing money is no longer a badge of honor like it was back then. And we're not seeing the mega marketing budgets of the dotcom boom either (that said, I'm not ruling out the possibility of an OpenAI ad on the Super Bowl - who wants to make a bet?).

Side note: this infographic from Visual Capitalist does a great job illustrating more of the similarities and diffferences.

But when I saw this sentence in Bloomberg's article about Mistral this week, I was immediately taken back to the dotcom era and the stories we covered in The Industry Standard.

👀 "The $2 billion valuation for a company less than a year old underscores the tech world’s unbridled optimism about the future promise and profit of artificial intelligence companies." 👀

I can't wait to see what happens next year.

Debra Aho Williamson

Debra Aho Williamson is a dynamic analyst and market influencer known for her ability to spot shifts in consumer behavior that create tectonic changes in marketing strategies. As founder and chief analyst at Sonata Insights, Debra provides research and advisory services to businesses that want to break new ground and lead industry conversations about the transformative impact of AI on marketing and consumer behavior.

https://www.sonatainsights.com/
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