SpaceX Secures $6.3 B Compute Deal with Open-Source AI Startup Reflection AI

SpaceX’s AI subsidiary, SpaceXAI, signed a multiyear compute lease with Reflection AI, granting the startup access to Nvidia GB300 GPUs at the Colossus 2 data center near Memphis, Tennessee. The contract obligates Reflection to pay $150 million per month starting 1 July 2026, for an estimated $6.3 billion through 2029. Either side may cancel with 90-day notice after a three-month lock-in.

TeslaratiBloombergSpaceX inks data center deal with startup Reflection AI for $1.8 bn per yearSpaceX lands $5.4B AI compute deal with Reflection AISpaceX Signs $6.3B Deal for Memphis Data Center Compute With Reflection AI

Colossus 2, a >1 million-sq-ft facility built by Elon Musk’s xAI and now run by SpaceX, houses over 220,000 Nvidia GPUs and consumes about 460 MW, supported by Tesla Megapacks and liquid cooling. After SpaceX’s June 2026 IPO, the center shifted from internal projects such as the Grok chatbot to external leasing. Prior leases include Anthropic (?$1.25 billion/month) and Google (?$920 million/month). Reflection AI, founded in 2024 by former DeepMind researchers Misha Laskin and Ioannis Antonoglou, is valued at $25 billion and backed by Nvidia.

Teslarati

The lease sets a $150 million monthly fee ($1.8 billion annually) for GB300 chips and networking hardware. It runs from July 2026 to December 2029 and allows termination with 90-day notice after three months. Reported total values vary between $5.4 billion and $6.3 billion.

Teslarati

The agreement highlights the scarcity of high-end GPU capacity, a bottleneck for frontier AI model training. Leasing compute diversifies SpaceX’s revenue beyond launch services, while Reflection gains the scale needed for open-weight model development, a segment gaining traction after limits on closed-source offerings.

SpaceX Signs US$6.3 Billion Deal With Reflection AI

SpaceX said the contract turns Colossus into a flexible revenue source while advancing its AI goals. Reflection’s spokesperson noted the partnership signals open-source AI’s strategic importance and that the added compute provides more runway for world-leading open models.

SpaceX Signs US$6.3 Billion Deal With Reflection AI

Analysts point to environmental concerns over Colossus’s 460 MW power draw and water-use cooling system, prompting local scrutiny. The fixed $150 million monthly outlay also raises risk if open-source model revenue does not keep pace.

SpaceX Signs $6.3B Deal for Memphis Data Center Compute With Reflection AI

Reports list the total contract value as $6.3 billion, $5.4 billion, or $5.5 billion, reflecting different calculations of the $150 million monthly rate. Independent confirmation of Reflection’s government collaborations is lacking.

Benzinga

• “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,” — Reflection spokesperson, emailed statement

TechCrunch

• “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.” — Reflection spokesperson, emailed statement

TechCrunch

• “By remaining open we ensure that the power of superintelligence is not captured by a few, but becomes the foundation upon which society, builders, and dreamers everywhere can create the next era of progress,” — Reflection website

Gizmodo

• “For all its talk of lunar colonies, missions to Mars, and data centers orbiting Earth, SpaceX’s real focus has been much more grounded.” — Gizmodo analysis

Gizmodo