Just a couple of weeks following the initial launch of Mistral’s AI assistant, Le Chat, the company revealed to Le Parisien that it has achieved a milestone of one million downloads. Notably, Le Chat swiftly rose to the top spot for free downloads on the iOS App Store in its home country, France.

In a television interview prior to the recent AI Action Summit in Paris, French President Emmanuel Macron endorsed Le Chat, saying, “Download Le Chat, which is developed by Mistral, rather than ChatGPT by OpenAI — or any other alternative.”

This is not the first instance of an AI app gaining widespread popularity. In November 2023, OpenAI’s AI chatbot, ChatGPT, made a significant impact. Initially available only to iOS users in the U.S., it garnered 500,000 downloads within six days. According to Appfigures’ latest statistics, ChatGPT has now been downloaded 350 million times.

Between January 10 and January 31, the mobile app of AI player DeepSeek also achieved one million downloads. However, this was just the beginning, as the Chinese app went viral in late January, attracting millions of additional users in a matter of days.

Mistral also faces competition from established Big Tech companies. The likes of Google and Microsoft are also vying to participate in the AI assistant market and secure a spot on users’ home screens, with Google’s Gemini and Microsoft’s Copilot being notable examples.