Reflection inks $1B compute deal with Nebius
Quick Answer
Reflection AI has secured a $1 billion compute deal with Nebius to access Nvidia's latest chips, following a similar agreement with SpaceX.
Quick Take
Reflection AI has secured a $1 billion compute deal with Nebius to access Nvidia's latest chips, following a similar agreement with SpaceX. This partnership highlights the growing competition among AI firms for computing resources amid rising interest in open-source models, particularly as concerns over closed-source AI and data retention grow.
Key Points
- Reflection AI is valued at $8 billion and has raised $2.6 billion in funding.
- Nebius previously partnered with Meta and Microsoft for significant infrastructure deals.
- The deal comes amid increasing interest in open-source AI models.
- Reflection was founded by former Google DeepMind researchers in 2024.
- The Trump administration has pressured AI firms to limit access to powerful models.
📖 Reader Mode
~2 min readIn Brief
Posted:
Reflection AI, a U.S. startup vying to develop open models, has signed a $1 billion compute deal with European AI infrastructure company, Nebius.
Nebius, formerly the international arm of Russian tech giant Yandex, will provide Reflection access to Nvidia’s latest chips. The deal comes just a few weeks after the startup signed a similar deal to access SpaceX’s computing resources, and mirrors several partnerships by AI firms as they race to secure compute for training and deploying their models.
Along with its increasingly capable Chinese counterparts, Reflection is one of several open-weight AI model developers that have received ample attention lately as debate rages over the value of top-shelf, closed-source AI models — especially with data retention concerns surging up, as well as government intervention.
Just last month, the Trump administration pressured Anthropic and OpenAI to restrict their most powerful new models, raising concerns that access to AI models could be taken away overnight. That, plus the release of more capable open models from China, has led to an increase in mainstream interest in open source AI.
Reflection, currently valued at $8 billion, was founded in 2024 by two former Google DeepMind researchers. It has already raised close to $2.6 billion in funding from backers including Nvidia, Sequoia Capital, and Lightspeed Venture Partners.
Shortly after securing a $2 billion investment from Nvidia, Nebius signed a five-year infrastructure deal with Meta worth up to $27 billion. Last year, Nebius signed a multi-year deal with Microsoft worth up to $19.4 billion.
TechCrunch has reached out to Reflection and Nebius for more information.
Topics
Subscribe for the industry’s biggest tech news
Latest in AI
— Originally published at techcrunch.com
Want this in your inbox every morning?
Daily brief at your local 8am — bilingual EN/中文, free.
More from TechCrunch
See more →
OpenAI launches its new family of models with GPT-5.6
OpenAI has launched GPT-5.6, featuring three models: Sol, Terra, and Luna, with Sol being 54% more token efficient for coding tasks. The models excel in cybersecurity and enterprise applications, outperforming competitors like Anthropic's Fable in benchmarks. Pricing starts at $1 for Luna and goes up to $30 for Sol per million tokens.
