Mistral AI has released Mistral Large 4, nicknamed 'Le Chonk', a 1 trillion-parameter open-weight model.

The model has 49 billion active parameters and is natively multimodal. It handles text and other data types together.

Mistral calls it the best open-weights model from the US or Europe on aggregated benchmarks.

It is aimed at critical workloads in cyber defence, manufacturing and finance. The company says it beats rivals there.

Open-weight models let developers download and run the weights. They offer more control than closed APIs.

The launch heats up the open-model race. Chinese and American labs are all pushing larger open releases.

Mistral is Europe's leading AI lab. Each release is watched as a test of Europe's AI competitiveness.

Developers can start testing Large 4 now. Real-world results will show how it stacks up.

Mistral has raised large funding rounds from global investors. It positions itself as Europe's open-AI champion. The model's weights are available for research and commercial use under an open licence.