Spanish company Multiverse Computing “soonicorn” releases a free zipped AI template

Large language models have a problem: they are large. Multiverse Computing, a Spanish startup, is tackling this problem with compact models that aim to bridge the gap between what frontier models can do and what companies can afford to actually deploy.

The secret sauce is CompactifAI, a compression technology inspired by quantum computing that the Basque company has applied to models released by OpenAI. Starting today, developers can access a newer version of Multiverse’s HyperNova 60B model for free on Hugging Face. The company also plans to open source more compressed models in 2026 to support a wider range of use cases.

According to Multiverse, their models are smaller, but almost as powerful and accurate. At 32GB, the HyperNova 60B is roughly half the size of the model it’s derived from – OpenAI’s gpt-oss-120b – while featuring lower memory usage and lower latency. The updated version, called the HyperNova 60B 2602, now also better supports tool calling and proxy coding, where inference costs can be high.

One competitor that Multiverse claims has beaten the HyperNova 60B is the Mistral Large 3, a model released by French company Decacorn Mistral AI. But beyond the technological rivalry, the two European companies also have a lot in common in the field of artificial intelligence.

Like Mistral, Multiverse has expanded beyond its home country, with offices in the US, Canada and across Europe. Both companies also have enterprise clients. In the case of Multiverse, it names Iberdrola, Bosch and the Bank of Canada.

Although Multiverse is not officially a unicorn yet, it is now rumored to be raising a new €500 million funding round at a valuation of over €1.5 billion. In a statement shared with TechCrunch, the company confirmed that active discussions with potential investors towards a new funding round are ongoing, but added that it would be too early to comment on the valuation or the size of the funding at this stage. Multiverse also declined to comment on reports that its annual recurring revenue (ARR) reached €100 million in January.

If confirmed, this would still be just a small portion of OpenAI’s $20 billion ARR; But not far behind is Mistral, whose internal rate of return has risen to more than $400 million, partly due to growing demand for alternatives to American technology. Likewise, Multiverse positions itself in its recent press release as a company that can “deliver sovereign solutions across the AI ​​stack.”

These geopolitical undertones recently helped Multiverse secure cooperation with the regional government in Aragon, in northeastern Spain. The Spanish Agency for Technology Transformation (SETT) also participated in the AI ​​startup’s $215 million Series B last year. Since its inception, Multiverse has also benefited from support from the Basque region – which could soon be considered its first unicorn.