source: techcrunch ai: spacex inks compute deal with reflection ai, an open source ai lab
level: business
reflection ai, an open source ai startup, signed a compute deal with spacex starting july 1, 2026. the company will pay $150 million per month through 2029 for access to nvidia gb300 chips and hardware at the colossus 2 data center near memphis, tennessee. the contract could reach $6.3 billion, with either side able to cancel after three months with 90 days' notice. this is reflection's first compute deal, and it is smaller than spacex's agreements with anthropic and google, which pay $1.25 billion and $920 million monthly.
reflection, founded in 2024 by former google deepmind researchers, promotes open-weight ai models that release trained parameters publicly. the startup says this approach offers an alternative to closed labs like anthropic and openai. interest in open models grew after the u.s. government banned anthropic's closed models, fable and mythos. a reflection spokesperson said recent events show the importance of open source for the ai ecosystem, as more nations and enterprises see risks in relying only on closed models.
the colossus data center was originally built by xai, now part of spacex, for its own ai work. as internal projects slowed, spacex began renting out its ai chips to top labs. reflection says the deal signals its strategic role in frontier ai and provides more compute to build large-scale open models. the contract highlights a shift toward open infrastructure in ai, giving smaller players access to resources typically controlled by a few large companies.
why it matters: this deal shows how open source ai labs can access massive compute, potentially reducing dependence on closed models and reshaping the ai infrastructure market.
source: techcrunch ai: spacex inks compute deal with reflection ai, an open source ai lab