Nvidia-backed Reflection unveils first AI model to take on Chinese open models
NVDA•Reflection AI debuted Beam, its first open-weight model, aiming to compete with lower-cost Chinese models in coding and agentic tasks. The model has 501 billion total parameters and activates 23 billion per task.
1. Beam model launch
Nvidia-backed Reflection AI debuted Beam on Monday as it aims to compete with Chinese open models such as DeepSeek and Kimi in coding and agentic tasks. Reflection said Beam is competitive with Z.ai’s GLM-5.2 and is closing in on Qwen3.8-Max on those tasks.
2. Model specifications
Beam contains 501 billion total parameters and activates 23 billion for each task, which Reflection said makes it faster and cheaper to run by using only part of its network. Z.ai’s GLM-5.2 has about 744 billion total parameters and 40 billion active parameters.
3. Company background
Founded in 2024 by former DeepMind researchers Misha Laskin and Ioannis Antonoglou, Reflection develops tools to automate software development. Earlier this year, it signed a deal with SpaceX for additional computing capacity at the company’s Colossus 2 data center.
