Nvidia-backed startup Reflection AI launches open-weight model Beam to compete with Chinese rivals

On October 5, 2026, Reflection AI, a US startup founded by former DeepMind researchers, launched Beam, an open-weight AI model for coding and agent tasks. The company claims Beam rivals China's GLM-5.2 and Qwen3.8-Max while being more cost-efficient. Beam activates only 23 billion of its 501 billion parameters per task. The launch is part of a US effort to compete with cheaper Chinese open models. Reflection is backed by Nvidia and has deals with SpaceX and Nebius for computing power. The company also supports US efforts to export AI technology, including a sovereign AI project in South Korea.