SpaceX inks compute deal with Reflection AI, an open source AI lab | TechCrunch
Short summary
Reflection AI will pay $150 million per month from July 2026 through 2029 for Nvidia GB300 chips and hardware at SpaceX’s Colossus 2 data center in Tennessee, in a contract worth up to $6.3 billion. The open-source-focused startup calls this its first major compute deal and one of the largest infrastructure commitments in the open AI space.
- Reflection AI committed to $150M/month from July 2026-2029 (up to $6.3B total) for Nvidia GB300 chips at SpaceX's Colossus 2 data center, with 90-day cancellation option after the first quarter
- This dwarfs in comparison to Anthropic ($1.25B/month) and Google ($920M/month) deals for the same facility, but is still notable as a small startup's first major compute deal
- Colossus began as xAI's private training hub before SpaceX absorbed it and opened capacity to outside labs once xAI's plans stalled
- Reflection positions itself as an open-weight lab, arguing this reduces vendor lock-in and geopolitical risk, gaining relevance after the U.S. blocked Anthropic's closed models Fable and Mythos
Full summary
Reflection AI will pay SpaceX $150 million every month starting July 1, 2026, through 2029 for access to Nvidia’s GB300 AI chips and related hardware in the Colossus 2 data center near Memphis. That commitment adds up to as much as $6.3 billion, with either side able to cancel on 90 days’ notice after the first quarter. By comparison, Anthropic and Google each signed much larger deals—$1.25 billion and $920 million per month, respectively—also running through July 2029.
The startup launched in 2024, founded by two ex–Google DeepMind engineers, and this is its first major compute agreement. Reflection bills itself as an open-weight AI lab, which means it publishes its trained model parameters instead of keeping them proprietary. After the U.S. blocked Anthropic’s closed models Fable and Mythos, open-weight approaches gained fresh attention. Reflection argues that public models cut down on vendor lock-in and geopolitical risk.
SpaceX’s Colossus facility began as xAI’s private training hub before Elon Musk folded it into SpaceX. Once xAI’s own AI plans lost steam, SpaceX opened the racks to outside teams. Now labs like Reflection, Anthropic and Google tap into that idle capacity. For Reflection, landing this deal signals that even a smaller startup can secure top-tier hardware on par with industry giants.