Reflection inks $1B compute deal with Nebius

Reflection AI, a U.S. startup developing open-weight AI models, has signed a $1 billion compute deal with Nebius, a European AI infrastructure company that will provide access to Nvidia's latest chips. This deal follows Reflection's recent similar agreement to access SpaceX's computing resources, reflecting a broader pattern of AI firms securing compute capacity for training and deploying models. The partnership is significant because open-weight AI models have gained mainstream attention amid concerns about closed-source models, including data retention issues and government restrictions on access, particularly following the Trump administration's pressure on major AI companies to limit their most powerful models. Reflection, founded in 2024 by former Google DeepMind researchers, is currently valued at $8 billion and has raised close to $2.6 billion in funding.