Reflection AI, a U.S. startup that fancies itself a contender in the open-model AI arena, has inked a $1 billion compute deal with European AI infrastructure firm Nebius. Nebius, which used to be the international arm of Russian tech giant Yandex before deciding that rebranding was easier than explaining its origins, will hook Reflection up with Nvidia’s latest chips. This comes just weeks after the startup signed a similar deal to tap into SpaceX’s computing resources, because apparently one billionaire’s tech empire isn't enough.

Reflection is among a growing pack of open-weight AI model developers getting a lot of attention lately, especially as the debate heats up over whether closed-source AI models are worth their weight in gold - or if they’re just a fancy way to lock users into data retention nightmares. The Trump administration recently pressured Anthropic and OpenAI to restrict their most powerful new models, sparking fears that access to AI could be yanked away faster than a tweet from the former president. That, combined with increasingly capable open models from China, has made open source AI suddenly look like the cool kid in class.

Reflection, valued at a cool $8 billion, was founded in 2024 by two former Google DeepMind researchers who clearly missed the free snacks. It has raised nearly $2.6 billion from backers including Nvidia, Sequoia Capital, and Lightspeed Venture Partners. Nebius, meanwhile, has been busy: after securing a $2 billion investment from Nvidia, it signed a five-year infrastructure deal with Meta worth up to $27 billion, and last year inked a multi-year deal with Microsoft worth up to $19.4 billion. Apparently, AI companies are competing to see who can spend the most on compute before the bubble bursts. TechCrunch has reached out to both companies for comment, but they’re probably too busy counting zeros.