Nvidia (NVDA.US) plans to use "acquisition-style hiring" to secure Reflection AI: first investing 800 millions, then bypassing regulation by buying talent instead of the company.

Zhitong Finance APP has learned, according to sources familiar with the matter, that NVIDIA (NVDA.US) is in talks to deepen its investment in, or potentially acquire, the open-source startup Reflection AI.

The report states that negotiations are still at an early stage, and the deal could take various forms, including a so-called “acqui-hire” arrangement—where NVIDIA would hire the company’s employees and license its technology, rather than pursue a full acquisition, which would allow it to bypass lengthy regulatory scrutiny.

According to the report, the two sides may reach an agreement in the coming weeks; the report, citing several sources, notes that discussions could still fall through.

NVIDIA is already a major financial backer and strategic investor in Reflection AI, having previously invested $800 million in the startup.

Reflection was founded in 2024 by former DeepMind researchers Misha Laskin and Ioannis Antonoglou. The company develops tools that can automate software development—a rapidly growing use case in the AI field.

In April of this year, Reflection CEO Laskin told media that the NVIDIA-backed startup is raising new capital at a pre-money valuation of $25 billion.

On Monday, the company released its first open-weight model, Beam, aiming to compete at lower costs in programming and agentic tasks with Chinese models such as DeepSeek and Kimi.