Reflection inks $1B compute deal with Nebius

Reflection AI, a rising U.S. startup focused on developing open AI models, has secured an impressive $1 billion computing agreement with Nebius, a European AI infrastructure provider. Nebius, which previously operated as the international division of the Russian tech company Yandex, will supply Reflection with access to the latest Nvidia chips. This significant deal follows closely on the heels of another agreement that Reflection made to utilize SpaceX's computing capabilities. The trend of AI companies forming partnerships to enhance their computational resources is becoming increasingly common as they strive to train and deploy their models effectively. As debates intensify over the merits of proprietary versus open-source AI models, Reflection is gaining attention alongside its competitors in China, particularly as concerns about data retention and government regulation escalate. Recently, the Trump administration urged companies like Anthropic and OpenAI to limit access to their more advanced models, which sparked fears that AI model availability could change rapidly. Founded in 2024 by former Google DeepMind researchers, Reflection AI is currently valued at an estimated $8 billion and has raised nearly $2.6 billion from prominent investors, including Nvidia, Sequoia Capital, and Lightspeed Venture Partners. Notably, Nebius itself recently secured a five-year deal with Meta that could be worth as much as $27 billion, following a $2 billion investment from Nvidia. Additionally, Nebius entered into a multi-year agreement with Microsoft valued at up to $19.4 billion last year. TechCrunch has sought further details from both Reflection and Nebius regarding this partnership.