Reflection AI secures $6.3B compute deal with SpaceX

SpaceX expands AI compute rental business with Reflection deal

Reflection AI has signed a compute contract with SpaceX worth up to $6.3 billion, becoming the latest artificial intelligence company to rent capacity at the aerospace firm's Colossus 2 data center near Memphis, Tennessee.

The deal, which runs from July 1, 2026 through 2029, will cost Reflection $150 million per month for immediate access to Nvidia's latest GB300 AI chips and supporting infrastructure, according to details first reported by TechCrunch. Either party can terminate the agreement with 90 days' notice after an initial three-month period.

Why it matters

SpaceX's transformation into a major AI infrastructure provider demonstrates how the compute shortage has created lucrative opportunities for companies holding large chip inventories. The deal also validates the commercial viability of open-weight AI models at a time when U.S. government restrictions on closed models have intensified debate over AI development approaches. For Reflection, founded just two years ago by former Google DeepMind researchers, the contract represents a significant infrastructure commitment that positions the startup to compete with better-funded rivals.

Smaller than previous SpaceX AI contracts

The Reflection agreement is notably smaller than SpaceX's existing compute deals with other AI labs. Anthropic currently pays $1.25 billion monthly, while Google's contract costs $920 million per month. Both of those arrangements also extend through July 2029, though SpaceX CEO Elon Musk has publicly emphasized the contracts' cancellation provisions.

Reflection characterized the deal as one of the largest announced open AI infrastructure commitments to date. The startup, founded in 2024, develops open-weight AI models that publicly release their trained parameters, positioning itself as an alternative to closed frontier labs like Anthropic and OpenAI.

Open-weight strategy gains traction

A Reflection spokesperson told TechCrunch that recent regulatory developments have highlighted the importance of open-source approaches to AI development. The company specifically referenced increased attention to open-weight models following the U.S. government's ban of Anthropic's closed models, Fable and Mythos.

"Recent events highlight how important open source is to the AI ecosystem, with more nations and enterprises recognizing the risks and costs associated with exclusively depending on closed models," the spokesperson said. "Our deal with SpaceXAI signals Reflection's strategic importance within the frontier AI ecosystem, and more compute means more runway to build the world's best open models at scale."

From xAI facility to compute rental operation

The Colossus data center was originally constructed by xAI, a company founded by Elon Musk that is now part of SpaceX, to support its own AI development efforts. As those internal projects have struggled to gain momentum, SpaceX has pivoted to monetizing its substantial AI chip holdings by leasing capacity to external organizations.

The arrangement gives Reflection immediate access to cutting-edge hardware without the capital expenditure and lead times associated with building proprietary infrastructure, while providing SpaceX with steady revenue from assets that might otherwise sit underutilized.

TechCrunch first reported the details of the compute agreement.