Key points
- The deal options Nvidia is weighing
- Nvidia's existing ties to Reflection
- What Reflection is building
Nvidia (NVDA) is in early talks to acquire or invest more in Reflection AI, a US developer of open-weight AI models that Nvidia already backs, the Financial Times reported on October 10.
The options under discussion include an "acqui-hire," in which Nvidia would hire Reflection's staff and license its technology, a deal to supply the startup with more chips, or a larger Nvidia stake, according to the report. No deal has been announced.
Nvidia already backs Reflection
Nvidia led Reflection's $2 billion funding round in October 2025, which valued the startup at $8 billion. Reflection's latest round closed at a $25 billion pre-money valuation, Chief Executive Misha Laskin confirmed in April, according to the company.
Reflection already uses Nvidia hardware through computing deals with SpaceX (SPCX) and Nebius (NBIS).
A deal would expand Nvidia's backing of AI developers that rely on its chips. Nvidia committed up to $10 billion to Anthropic last November and backed an OpenAI data center lease in August.
Reflection is betting on open-weight models
Laskin and co-founder Ioannis Antonoglou, both former Google DeepMind researchers, are pitching Reflection to companies and governments seeking a US alternative to Chinese open models.
Reflection unveiled Beam on October 5. It plans to release the model's weights under an Apache 2.0 license later this month, allowing developers to download and modify it.
Reflection's own benchmarks put newer Chinese open models ahead on most tests. Its pitch is that Beam needs less computing power to run.
