Reflection AI Secures $2 Billion Funding to Challenge OpenAI and Anthropic
Reflection AI has raised $2 billion at an $8 billion valuation, marking a 15x increase from its $545 million valuation seven months prior. The startup, founded by former Google DeepMind researchers Misha Laskin and Ioannis Antonoglou, aims to position itself as an open-source alternative to closed AI labs like OpenAI and Anthropic, while also serving as a Western counterpart to Chinese AI firms such as DeepSeek.
The funding round saw participation from high-profile investors including NVIDIA, Sequoia, Lightspeed, and Eric Schmidt. Reflection AI has shifted its focus from autonomous coding agents to building frontier models, leveraging top talent recruited from DeepMind and OpenAI. "We are bringing the open model frontier back to the US to build a thriving AI ecosystem globally," Laskin stated.
