Nvidia-backed Reflection AI reaches 20-25bn valuation without releasing a foundation model yet
Nvidia $NVDA-backed Reflection AI raised $2B, reaching a $20-25B implied valuation, but as of mid-2026 still hasn't released a foundation model, per cofounder Ioannis Antonoglou. It now pays SpaceXAI $150M a month for GB300 compute through 2029, positioning itself against China's
Reflection AI, founded in March 2024 by former Google DeepMind researchers Misha Laskin and Ioannis Antonoglou, has become one of the most heavily funded AI startups without shipping a product. Nvidia $NVDA led an $800M funding round, part of $2B raised in total, valuing the company at $8B; by mid-2026, ongoing funding talks had pushed its implied valuation into the $20B to $25B range. Despite that, Reflection has not publicly released a single foundation model. Cofounder and CTO Ioannis Antonoglou says the company plans to finally release an open source model later this year. To build it, Reflection will pay SpaceXAI $150M a month for compute access to GB300 chips inside the Colossus 2 data center, a deal running from July 2026 through 2029. The company positions itself as a Western, US-backed counterweight to Chinese open source AI efforts like DeepSeek. The gap between Reflection's valuation and its output is unusual even by AI industry standards: a $20-25B price tag built entirely on the promise of a model that does not exist yet.