Reflection CEO on AI race: The best open models are coming from China

Summary

Misha Laskin, CEO of Reflection, discusses the global AI race, highlighting that the best open-source AI models are coming from China, and that sovereign and enterprise adoption is favoring open models for ownership control. He confirms Reflection has raised significant funding from investors like NVIDIA and JP Morgan, and emphasizes the importance of building American open models as a counterbalance.

• Reflection CEO confirms $2 billion raise at $25 billion valuation, with investors including NVIDIA and JP Morgan.
• Laskin states the best open AI models are currently coming from China.
• Sovereign and enterprise users prefer open models to own rather than rent AI intelligence.
• Reflection is building frontier open models in the US to compete with Chinese open models.
• The AI race is not just about models but the entire infrastructure stack (chips, software).
• Safety debate: Laskin suggests open models benefit from broader developer access for safety research.
• Reflection's model is not yet publicly available; progress is ongoing with a team of 150 top AI researchers.