Reflection AI signs $1B compute deal with Nebius

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.

The compute deal between Reflection and Nebius underscores the growing demand for computing resources among AI startups. As governments and regulators scrutinize the development and deployment of AI models, open-source alternatives like those being developed by Reflection are gaining traction. This deal also highlights the strategic importance of Nvidia's chips in the AI ecosystem, as companies like Reflection and Nebius compete to secure access to these critical resources.

For developers and businesses, this trend suggests that securing compute will become an increasingly important factor in the development and deployment of AI models. However, questions remain about the long-term implications of these deals and the potential for market consolidation in the AI infrastructure space.