# Reflection AI — Introducing Beam: Reflection’s 501B open-weight model

- Company: Reflection AI (reflection.ai)
- Announced: 2026-10-05
- Category: open-weight-release
- Coverage: 25 outlets
- Announcement: yes
- Group: models
- Source: https://reflection.ai/blog/introducing-beam
- Record: https://forck.live/items/18513-introducing-beam-reflection-s-501b-open-weight-model
- Subject: Reflection Beam
- Open weights: yes
- Models affected: Beam, GLM 5.2, Qwen 3.8-Max, Kimi K3
- Context window: 256K tokens

Reflection AI introduced Beam, an open-weight sparse Mixture-of-Experts model with 501 billion total parameters and 23 billion active parameters, focused on coding, reasoning, and agentic tasks. The model was pretrained on 23.8 trillion tokens and trained with high-compute reinforcement learning using 10.5K NVIDIA GB300 GPUs over four weeks, generating over 100 million rollouts. Beam is undergoing final red-teaming and evaluations, with weights, technical report, and developer artifacts to be released later this month.

## Evidence

Verbatim from https://reflection.ai/blog/introducing-beam:

> Beam is a sparse Mixture-of-Experts model with 501 billion total parameters, 23 billion active, built for coding, reasoning, and agentic workloads.

## Around this story

Outlets this record can name and link:

- Reuters: https://reuters.com/technology/nvidia-backed-reflection-unveils-first-ai-model-take-chinese-open-models-2026-10-05
- Bloomberg: https://bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-10-05/nvidia-backed-reflection-unveils-open-ai-model-taking-on-china
- Axios: https://axios.com/2026/10/06/reflection-mistral-open-weight-ai-models-china
- South China Morning Post — Nvidia-backed Reflection AI challenges Chinese dominance in open-weight models: https://scmp.com/tech/tech-trends/article/3369885/nvidia-backed-reflection-ai-challenges-chinese-dominance-open-weight-models
- Quartz: https://qz.com/reflection-ai-beam-open-weight-model-launch-100626
- Fortune — Reflection AI unveils its first open model, Beam. Could it be the America's best chance to compete with China?: https://fortune.com/2026/10/05/reflection-ai-unveils-beam-a-new-us-based-open-source-model-to-compete-with-china
- Economic Times — Nvidia-backed Reflection unveils first AI model to take on Chinese open models: https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/tech/artificial-intelligence/nvidia-backed-reflection-unveils-first-ai-model-to-take-on-chinese-open-models/articleshow/134721941.cms
- PCMag: https://pcmag.com/news/nvidia-backed-startup-builds-open-weight-model-to-challenge-chinese-labs
- Tech in Asia: https://techinasia.com/news/nvidiabacked-ai-startup-reflection-unveils-beam-model
- Finimize: https://finimize.com/content/nvidia-backed-reflection-ai-unveils-beam-to-take-on-chinas-coders
- The Hill: https://thehill.com/policy/technology/6130496-reflection-ai-releases-beam-model
- Business Standard: https://business-standard.com/technology/artificial-intelligence/nvidia-backed-reflection-unveils-open-ai-model-to-rival-chinese-models-126100600175_1.html
- The Neuron — Reflection AI’s Beam Takes On Chinese Open-Source Models: https://theneuron.ai/news/reflection-ai-beam-chinese-open-source-models
- Help Net Security — Reflection's Beam trails top open models on coding tests but claims lower inference compute: https://helpnetsecurity.com/2026/10/06/reflections-beam-trails-top-open-models-on-coding-tests-but-claims-lower-inference-compute
- WOWTALE — Reflection AI Launches Open-Weight Model 'Beam,' Pushing the Western Open Frontier: https://en.wowtale.net/2026/10/06/235392
- The Straits Times — Nvidia-backed start-up Reflection unveils open AI model to rival China offerings: https://straitstimes.com/business/nvidia-backed-start-up-reflection-unveils-open-ai-model-to-rival-china-offerings
- Cautious Optimism — Splitting the atom to juice Western open-weight models: https://cautiousoptimism.news/atom-split-western-ai
- Futurum — Reflection's Beam: Open-Weight Frontier at Enterprise Inference Cost: https://futurumgroup.com/insights/reflections-beam-open-weight-frontier-at-enterprise-inference-cost
- Sources — Reflection’s founders on building a DeepSeek of the West: https://sources.news/p/reflection-founders-open-weight-beam-release
- Unite — Reflection AI Unveils Beam, a 501B-Parameter Open-Weight Model: https://unite.ai/reflection-ai-unveils-beam-a-501b-parameter-open-weight-model
- RuntimeWire — Reflection publishes Beam benchmark scores ahead of its weight release: https://runtimewire.com/article/reflection-ai-beam-open-weight-model
- RuntimeWire — Reflection AI unveils Beam as a Western open-weight rival to Chinese models: https://runtimewire.com/article/reflection-ai-beam-open-weight-model-2

## Follow-ups

- The Decoder (reported, 6 Oct): Reflection's Beam becomes the most capable open-weight model built outside China — https://forck.live/items/16192-reflection-s-beam-becomes-the-most-capable-open-weight-model-built-outside-china
- SiliconANGLE (reported, 6 Oct): Reflection AI debuts open-source Beam model with 501B parameters — https://forck.live/items/16124-reflection-ai-debuts-open-source-beam-model-with-501b-parameters
- TechCrunch (reported, 5 Oct): Reflection debuts Beam, an open-weight AI model to rival Chinese models at lower compute cost — https://forck.live/items/16091-reflection-debuts-beam-an-open-weight-ai-model-to-rival-chinese-models-at

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