Nvidia weighs Reflection AI deal as Microsoft calls for AI emergency brake and physical AI funding hits $48B

Nvidia weighs deeper ties with Reflection AI

Nvidia is in talks to acquire or invest more in US open weights AI startup Reflection AI, according to the Financial Times. The report says the deal may be structured as an acquihire to avoid antitrust scrutiny, and the Trump administration hopes Reflection AI will rival cheap Chinese alternatives such as DeepSeek. Posts in the snapshot said Nvidia has already invested $800 million in Reflection AI.

Reflection AI is described as a developer of open weight models. Commentary around the talks said buying the most highly valued non-Chinese open source model developer could put to rest the idea that open source models are bearish for the AI infrastructure complex. Other posts said a deal would pressure frontier labs and noted Nvidia competing more directly with them.

Nadella calls for an emergency brake around AI

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella said super intelligence systems are black boxes that should not be trusted by companies without strong deterministic systems around their deployment. He argued that as powerful AI agents act across the economy, the most trustworthy setup is the one that forces the least inherent trust in the model.

The remarks were discussed after the Trump administration pushed the term super intelligence. Several tech leaders responded: Marc Benioff said the era of super intelligence is here, Mustafa Suleyman said super intelligence must be contained, and Elon Musk called it an interesting piece. Rep. Ted Lieu said he largely agreed and pointed to the bipartisan AI Kill Switch Act introduced with Rep. Moran.

Physical AI funding, health tech and security

PitchBook data reported by the Financial Times says robotics and physical AI companies have raised roughly $48 billion year to date. Physical AI developers are putting cameras in homes, offices and factories to gather training data from people completing tasks.

In funding news, General Medicine raised a $120 million Series B led by Andreessen Horowitz, Multiply Labs raised a $75 million Series B led by NantWorks, and Rein Security raised a $25 million Series A, bringing its total funding to $35 million. Rein Security said revenue has grown eightfold since January and its platform is securing thousands of agents that execute millions of actions.

Japan declared a state of emergency in cyber space after more than 20 major Japanese companies reported cyber attacks in recent weeks. Targets included car rental operators, barbecue chains and rail group JR East. General Medicine is an online storefront for medical care founded by PillPack founders TJ Parker and Elliot Cohen, while Multiply Labs develops robotic systems to automate pharmaceutical manufacturing.

Sources: Techmeme