BROOKLYN — REFLECTION AI, a Brooklyn-based artificial intelligence (AI) company, has raised $2 billion to develop an open-source alternative to China’s DeepSeek, valuing the firm at $8 billion, up 15-fold in value less than two years after launch, according to Inc. Founded in 2024 by former DeepMind engineers Misha Laskin and Ioannis Antonoglou, Reflection aims to build “frontier open intelligence” — large-scale, transparent models to rival those developed behind closed doors by companies like OpenAI. 

“If AI remains confined to a few entities, they’ll control the capital, compute and talent,” the startup said in a statement.

Reflection’s engineers have worked on landmark AI systems such as Gemini and AlphaGo. The company plans to release its first model early next year, arguing that “rigorous science conducted in the open” is safer and more democratic than secrecy.

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