Robin Rombach, co-founder and CEO of Black Forest Labs, argued at the RAISE Summit in Paris that alarmist rhetoric about artificial intelligence risks driving developers to lock down their models, ultimately slowing the pace of progress across the field.
RAISE Summit · Paris · July 8–9
"Fear Locks Models Down — And Slows Everyone Down"
Black Forest Labs CEO Robin Rombach argues that alarmist AI-safety rhetoric pushes developers toward closed systems — and that keeping capable models open is what actually sustains progress.
$300M
Series B raised, Dec 2025
$3.25B
Post-money valuation
32B
Parameters in open FLUX.2 [dev]
4MP
Max output resolution
The Two-Track Playbook
One strategy, two audiences — open weights build reach, the API earns revenue.
Open Track
FLUX.2 [dev]
Open-weight, run locally via ComfyUI (incl. fp8 build with NVIDIA). Builds adoption, research credibility & community goodwill.
Proprietary Track
[pro] · [max] · [flex] · [klein]
Delivered via API & Playground. Top quality, speed and control for commercial customers needing IP protection.
The Case, Both Ways
Why openness may serve safety and speed — and where doubts remain.
Supporters
Full local control, no cloud dependency
Custom fine-tuning via LoRA
Retaining control avoids IP disputes
Open Questions
Commercial licensing details unclear
Best performance stays tied to paid API
Will regulators buy the argument?
The Bet
Europe should be known for frontier AI — not just its landmarks.
Black Forest Labs — founded in Freiburg by former Stability AI researchers, backed by a16z, NVIDIA and Salesforce Ventures — is betting that keeping capable models accessible keeps it at the center of the visual AI market.
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