Nvidia in Early Talks to Acquire or Deepen Stake in Open-Model Startup Reflection AI

Nvidia is in early-stage discussions to acquire Reflection AI or expand its existing investment in the U.S. developer of open-weight artificial intelligence models, according to a Financial Times report citing people with direct knowledge of the talks.

The negotiations come just a week after Reflection released Beam, its first model, and could still collapse. The FT said the two companies could reach an agreement within weeks. Bloomberg separately reported that Nvidia was discussing a larger investment or a compute arrangement, and that no terms had been agreed.

Several deal structures on the table

According to the reports, the options include a so-called acqui-hire, under which Nvidia would hire Reflection’s staff and license its technology rather than buy the company outright—a structure that could avoid a prolonged antitrust review. Alternatives include supplying the startup with additional chips or raising Nvidia’s equity stake.

Nvidia has already invested roughly $800 million in Reflection. Earlier this year, the startup was reported to be seeking new funding at a pre-money valuation of about $25 billion, a figure that reflects its fundraising ambitions rather than a proposed purchase price.

A U.S. answer to Chinese open models

Reflection was founded in 2024 by former Google DeepMind researchers Misha Laskin and Ioannis Antonoglou. Its Beam model, released Oct. 5, is an open-weight system aimed at software coding and autonomous agent tasks. The company has also signed compute agreements with SpaceX and cloud provider Nebius.

The FT reported that the Trump administration hopes Reflection can compete with low-cost Chinese open models such as DeepSeek, which have gained rapid adoption among developers worldwide.

Nvidia’s expanding dealmaking

A Reflection transaction would extend an aggressive run of deals by the world’s most valuable chipmaker. In September, Nvidia agreed to buy AI platform Hugging Face for $12.93 billion, and it previously struck a licensing agreement with chip startup Groq whose chief executive and chief operating officer joined Nvidia.

The Justice Department is examining whether the Groq arrangement was structured to sidestep merger review, The New York Times reported in September. Nvidia has defended that deal as an example of “the American system working as designed.” Neither Nvidia nor Reflection has publicly commented on the latest talks.