The competition around open-weight AI models is intensifying as Reflection AI, backed by Nvidia, launches its first model with a focus on coding and agentic tasks.
The startup introduced Beam on Monday, positioning it against lower-cost Chinese models such as DeepSeek and Kimi. Reflection said Beam is competitive with Chinese AI startup Z.ai’s GLM-5.2 and is narrowing the gap with Qwen3.8-Max in coding and agentic tasks.
Beam has 501 billion total parameters, which are the variables that influence how an AI model processes information. However, only 23 billion parameters are activated for each task. This approach is designed to make the model faster and less expensive to operate by using only part of its network for each task.
By comparison, Z.ai’s GLM-5.2 has around 744 billion total parameters, with 40 billion active parameters.
The launch comes as US technology companies face growing competition from Chinese open-weight models. These models are generally cheaper and more customisable, while also becoming capable of generating code at levels close to leading models from OpenAI and Anthropic.
Reflection AI was founded in 2024 by former DeepMind researchers Misha Laskin and Ioannis Antonoglou. The company develops tools designed to automate software development, an increasingly important application of AI.
Earlier this year, Reflection signed a deal with SpaceX for additional computing capacity at Colossus 2, the data centre operated by Elon Musk’s company.
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