Nvidia in talks to acquire or deepen investment in Reflection AI

In short: Nvidia is in early talks to buy Reflection AI or expand its investment and partnership with the start-up, according to people familiar with the matter.

What happened

Nvidia is discussing a possible deal with Reflection AI, a US start-up that builds “open-weight” AI models. Open-weight means the company shares the model’s core settings, so other people can run it on their own computers and adjust it (like getting a recipe you can tweak at home).

People with direct knowledge of the talks told the Financial Times that the discussions are at an early stage. One option is a full acquisition. Another is an “acqui-hire”, where Nvidia would hire Reflection’s staff and license its technology, which can avoid the longer regulatory review that often comes with a traditional buyout.

Nvidia is already one of Reflection’s largest shareholders and has invested about $800 million in the company, the report said. Reflection was last valued at $25 billion in a funding round in March. The companies declined to comment.

The Financial Times also reported that Nvidia could choose a simpler path, such as investing more money, or providing more Nvidia chips and computing power to help Reflection train and run its models.

Why it matters

This matters because open-weight AI models can be cheaper for businesses to use than closed products such as ChatGPT or Claude, since companies can run them on their own hardware. The report says the Trump administration wants a strong US option that can compete with lower-cost Chinese alternatives such as DeepSeek. If Nvidia moves forward, it could shape which AI tools businesses and government agencies rely on, and it could increase demand for Nvidia’s chips, which are widely used to power modern AI.

Source: Financial Times