{
 "schema_version": "1.0",
 "page_kind": "article",
 "pack_kind": "generate",
 "slug": "who-makes-flux",
 "title": "Who makes FLUX: a short history of Black Forest Labs",
 "dek": "Two of the three picture models on The same eighteen pictures, card by card come from Black Forest Labs (BFL), a company in Freiburg and San Francisco whose models are called FLUX. This is its history as the public record tells it, as of 2026-09-25 (UTC): the papers, the Stability AI years, the launch, the money as reported, the licences model by model, and the turn to video and robots. A history, not a review.",
 "published": "2026-09-26",
 "series": [
  "notes"
 ],
 "licence": "CC BY 4.0",
 "status": "pending-judge",
 "pack_note": "no judge is seated, so every chip is held",
 "notice": "items with published:false are held and are not this page's published words",
 "source": {
  "url": "https://research.strata2signal.com/who-makes-flux/",
  "md_url": "https://research.strata2signal.com/who-makes-flux/index.md",
  "md_sha": "8aa8922cfe7b22b6e884d71d8f8d348c6650a536a65fab2fb8077ec6f6cb5c6a",
  "html_sha": "5537ed531d6b70debd9b95f3d7746094830bed504637473d3941270043a1ee1b",
  "anchors_sha": "f0bef2e1cc165a286ac3d1dc2b26fbcc6521b0bcf6041d9331a0810649d9bed9"
 },
 "short": {
  "paragraph": "three of the researchers whose papers became Stable Diffusion were reported to have left Stability AI in March 2024; with Patrick Esser and others they launched Black Forest Labs and FLUX.1 on 2024-08-01, with a seed round BFL put at $31 million. By 2026-09-25 BFL said it was valued at $3.25 billion and had raised more than $450 million in all. It sells its strongest models through an API and releases others as open weights: FLUX.1 [schnell] and FLUX.2 [klein] 4B under Apache 2.0; FLUX.1 [dev] and klein 9B under a non-commercial licence whose words on the pictures are quoted below, without a legal reading; FLUX 3 Action under a licence with a revenue test. Every figure is as reported or as BFL states it.",
  "from_dek": false,
  "counts": {
   "words": 3070,
   "minutes": 14,
   "tables": 1,
   "kit": false
  },
  "bullets": [
   {
    "text": "BFL announced its Series Seed funding round of $31 million",
    "figure": "$31 million",
    "cite": "launch-and-grok",
    "quote": "On 2024-08-01 BFL announced itself, \"to develop and advance state-of-the-art generative deep learning models for media such as images and videos\", with \"our Series Seed funding round of $31 million\" led by Andreessen Horowitz [8].",
    "span": [
     4790,
     4802
    ]
   },
   {
    "text": "BFL announced a Series B of $300M",
    "figure": "$300M",
    "cite": "flux-2-the-round-and-klein",
    "quote": "Six days later BFL announced \"our Series B of $300M at a $3.25B post-money valuation\", co-led by Salesforce Ventures and Anjney Midha's AMP [20]; the press release disclosed \"a previously unannounced Series A led by Andreessen Horowitz\", \"bringing total funds raised to over $450M USD\", with no date, size or valuation for it [21].",
    "span": [
     7661,
     7667
    ]
   },
   {
    "text": "the FLUX 3 model was released in early access on 2026-07-23",
    "figure": "2026-07-23",
    "cite": "flux-3-the-data-question-and-the-critics",
    "quote": "On 2026-07-23 BFL put FLUX 3 into early access under the heading \"Real World Models\": a model that \"jointly learns from images, videos, and audio within a unified architecture\" [30], with \"faster and open-weight versions of FLUX 3 later this year\" promised [31].",
    "span": [
     9236,
     9247
    ]
   }
  ]
 },
 "sections": [
  {
   "id": "the-words-this-page-leans-on",
   "heading": "The words this page leans on",
   "level": 2,
   "span": [
    1902,
    3061
   ],
   "chunks": [
    [
     1902,
     3061
    ]
   ],
   "chars": 1159,
   "digest": null,
   "digest_skipped": null
  },
  {
   "id": "before-the-company",
   "heading": "Before the company",
   "level": 2,
   "span": [
    3061,
    4351
   ],
   "chunks": [
    [
     3061,
     4351
    ]
   ],
   "chars": 1290,
   "digest": "the text traces research from VQGAN in 2020 and the latent diffusion paper in 2021 to the release of Stable Diffusion in 2022. it notes that ten people named as BFL's co-founders were listed as authors on the SD3 paper in 2024.",
   "digest_skipped": null
  },
  {
   "id": "launch-and-grok",
   "heading": "Launch, and Grok",
   "level": 2,
   "span": [
    4351,
    6434
   ],
   "chunks": [
    [
     4351,
     6434
    ]
   ],
   "chars": 2083,
   "digest": "BFL GmbH was registered in Munich in 2024. BFL announced a $31 million Series Seed funding round and launched three FLUX.1 models. xAI reported experimenting with FLUX.1 to expand Grok's capabilities, and TechCrunch reported a potential $100 million round.",
   "digest_skipped": null
  },
  {
   "id": "building-a-business",
   "heading": "Building a business",
   "level": 2,
   "span": [
    6434,
    7232
   ],
   "chunks": [
    [
     6434,
     7232
    ]
   ],
   "chars": 798,
   "digest": null,
   "digest_skipped": null
  },
  {
   "id": "flux-2-the-round-and-klein",
   "heading": "FLUX.2, the round, and klein",
   "level": 2,
   "span": [
    7232,
    8712
   ],
   "chunks": [
    [
     7232,
     8712
    ]
   ],
   "chars": 1480,
   "digest": null,
   "digest_skipped": null
  },
  {
   "id": "flux-3-the-data-question-and-the-critics",
   "heading": "FLUX 3, the data question, and the critics",
   "level": 2,
   "span": [
    8712,
    10758
   ],
   "chunks": [
    [
     8712,
     10758
    ]
   ],
   "chars": 2046,
   "digest": null,
   "digest_skipped": null
  },
  {
   "id": "the-licences-model-by-model",
   "heading": "The licences, model by model",
   "level": 2,
   "span": [
    10758,
    12535
   ],
   "chunks": [
    [
     10758,
     12535
    ]
   ],
   "chars": 1777,
   "digest": null,
   "digest_skipped": "credits"
  },
  {
   "id": "the-timeline-in-one-table",
   "heading": "The timeline in one table",
   "level": 2,
   "span": [
    12535,
    14358
   ],
   "chunks": [
    [
     12535,
     14358
    ]
   ],
   "chars": 1823,
   "digest": "this section provides a chronological table of events from 2020 to 2026, including research papers, company registrations, funding rounds, and model releases.",
   "digest_skipped": null
  },
  {
   "id": "the-company-today-and-what-the-record-does-not-say",
   "heading": "The company today, and what the record does not say",
   "level": 2,
   "span": [
    14358,
    15548
   ],
   "chunks": [
    [
     14358,
     15548
    ]
   ],
   "chars": 1190,
   "digest": null,
   "digest_skipped": null
  },
  {
   "id": "what-their-models-did-on-our-cards",
   "heading": "What their models did on our cards",
   "level": 2,
   "span": [
    15548,
    16391
   ],
   "chunks": [
    [
     15548,
     16391
    ]
   ],
   "chars": 843,
   "digest": "this section describes a workshop where FLUX.1 [dev] and FLUX.2 [klein] 4B were timed on several graphics cards. the workshop timed the pictures rather than judging them.",
   "digest_skipped": null
  },
  {
   "id": "who-wrote-this-and-thanks",
   "heading": "Who wrote this, and thanks",
   "level": 2,
   "span": [
    16391,
    16947
   ],
   "chunks": [
    [
     16391,
     16947
    ]
   ],
   "chars": 556,
   "digest": null,
   "digest_skipped": "credits"
  },
  {
   "id": "sources",
   "heading": "Sources",
   "level": 2,
   "span": [
    16947,
    24917
   ],
   "chunks": [
    [
     16947,
     24917
    ]
   ],
   "chars": 7970,
   "digest": null,
   "digest_skipped": null
  }
 ],
 "chips": [
  {
   "id": "c-2811199a",
   "q": "what research preceded the formation of bfl?",
   "a": "Research includes the posting of VQGAN in December 2020 and the latent diffusion paper in December 2021. These works involve researchers who later became part of the BFL founding team.",
   "cites": [
    "before-the-company"
   ],
   "published": false,
   "publish_state": "held",
   "quote": "",
   "quote_cite": ""
  },
  {
   "id": "c-9986f151",
   "q": "what is the nature of the meta contract?",
   "a": "Bloomberg reported that Meta signed a multi-year contract worth more than $100 million to use Black Forest Labs AI for images.",
   "cites": [
    "building-a-business"
   ],
   "published": false,
   "publish_state": "held",
   "quote": "",
   "quote_cite": ""
  },
  {
   "id": "c-e3e25a6c",
   "q": "what data sources were used for the flux 3 family?",
   "a": "The family was trained on a proprietary mix of textual, image, and video data, including data from third parties, data-labeling services, paid contractors, usage data, synthetic data, and internally generated data.",
   "cites": [
    "flux-3-the-data-question-and-the-critics"
   ],
   "published": false,
   "publish_state": "held",
   "quote": "",
   "quote_cite": ""
  },
  {
   "id": "c-3e5b6fd3",
   "q": "what information is missing regarding the series a?",
   "a": "The article notes that the terms of the Series A round were not found in any read source.",
   "cites": [
    "the-company-today-and-what-the-record-does-not-say"
   ],
   "published": false,
   "publish_state": "held",
   "quote": "",
   "quote_cite": ""
  },
  {
   "id": "c-14dd904a",
   "q": "how were the models tested in the workshop?",
   "a": "The models were timed on several graphics cards running identical software to see how many pictures a stretch of time buys, rather than being judged for quality.",
   "cites": [
    "what-their-models-did-on-our-cards"
   ],
   "published": false,
   "publish_state": "held",
   "quote": "",
   "quote_cite": ""
  }
 ],
 "related": [
  {
   "slug": "licences",
   "why": "shares ground with § The timeline in one table · § How to read this page"
  },
  {
   "slug": "a-3090-in-its-own-words",
   "why": "shares ground with § What their models did on our cards · § Part three: mind"
  },
  {
   "slug": "two-3090s-out-one-3090-ti-in",
   "why": "shares ground with § What their models did on our cards · § What the sign says"
  }
 ],
 "thanks": "## Who wrote this, and thanks {#who-wrote-this-and-thanks}\n\nWritten from a fact sheet of seventy-five dated rows and twelve licence rows, every source read on 2026-09-25 and checked again by a separate agent; a claim that check could not confirm was corrected, said as reported, or left out. Thanks to Black Forest Labs for the open weights and the public pages a history can be read from; to Hugging Face and arXiv; and to the reporters at SiliconANGLE, The Verge, TechCrunch, Ars Technica, Bloomberg, Deadline and Fortune. A human signed the sentences.",
 "kit": null,
 "seat_class": {
  "writer": "gemma-class",
  "judge": null,
  "writer_runtime": "vllm"
 },
 "bench": {
  "bullets_written": 3,
  "bullets_kept": 3,
  "digests_written": 9,
  "digests_kept": 4,
  "chips_written": 8,
  "chips_kept": 5,
  "chips_grounded": 0,
  "chips_published": 0,
  "dropped_by": {
   "new_noun": 2,
   "figure": 0,
   "length": 0,
   "cite": 0,
   "judge": 0,
   "quote": 0,
   "directive": 0,
   "redaction": 0,
   "profanity": 0,
   "identifier": 0,
   "bare_figure": 0,
   "house_voice": 0,
   "hand-edit": 6
  },
  "new_noun_tokens_checked": [
   "100",
   "2020",
   "2021",
   "2022",
   "2024",
   "2025",
   "2026",
   "2026-07-23",
   "2026-09-25",
   "3",
   "3.25B",
   "300M",
   "31",
   "32B",
   "450M",
   "4B",
   "50/50",
   "AI",
   "Andreessen",
   "B",
   "BFL",
   "BFL's",
   "Black",
   "December",
   "Diffusion",
   "FLUX",
   "FLUX.1",
   "FLUX.2",
   "Forest",
   "GmbH",
   "Grok's",
   "Horowitz",
   "Kontext",
   "Labs",
   "Martin",
   "Meta",
   "Munich",
   "SD3",
   "Scorsese",
   "Seed",
   "Series",
   "Stable",
   "TechCrunch",
   "USD",
   "VAE",
   "VQGAN"
  ],
  "new_noun_tokens_withheld": 2,
  "figure_definition": "v3",
  "figure_boundary": "guarded",
  "drops": [
   {
    "kind": "digest",
    "reason": "new_noun",
    "item": null,
    "item_chars": 4,
    "withheld": "a string naming something the article does not",
    "detail": ""
   },
   {
    "kind": "chip",
    "reason": "new_noun",
    "item": null,
    "item_chars": 6,
    "withheld": "a string naming something the article does not",
    "detail": ""
   },
   {
    "kind": "digest",
    "reason": "hand-edit",
    "item": null,
    "item_chars": 272,
    "text_sha": "29a6cd09aacb",
    "section": "the-words-this-page-leans-on",
    "withheld": "one section digest removed from this pack by hand",
    "removed_utc": "2026-09-25",
    "why": "the digest says the [dev] licences exclude revenue-generating activity; the page quotes what the licence text says it excludes and draws no legal reading",
    "detail": "removed from this pack by hand on 2026-09-25 (UTC), after the writer ran and after the gates had counted: the digest says the [dev] licences exclude revenue-generating activity; the page quotes what the licence text says it excludes and draws no legal reading. Not a gate drop, and recorded here so the ledger adds up."
   },
   {
    "kind": "digest",
    "reason": "hand-edit",
    "item": null,
    "item_chars": 223,
    "text_sha": "64c0eddcba4b",
    "section": "building-a-business",
    "withheld": "one section digest removed from this pack by hand",
    "removed_utc": "2026-09-25",
    "why": "the digest gives the 50/50 line as Rombach's own statement; the page gives it as Fortune reported that Rombach says it",
    "detail": "removed from this pack by hand on 2026-09-25 (UTC), after the writer ran and after the gates had counted: the digest gives the 50/50 line as Rombach's own statement; the page gives it as Fortune reported that Rombach says it. Not a gate drop, and recorded here so the ledger adds up."
   },
   {
    "kind": "digest",
    "reason": "hand-edit",
    "item": null,
    "item_chars": 204,
    "text_sha": "cb65c6164508",
    "section": "flux-2-the-round-and-klein",
    "withheld": "one section digest removed from this pack by hand",
    "removed_utc": "2026-09-25",
    "why": "the digest has FLUX.2 [klein] released in 2025; the section says a smaller FLUX.2 [klein] was promised then",
    "detail": "removed from this pack by hand on 2026-09-25 (UTC), after the writer ran and after the gates had counted: the digest has FLUX.2 [klein] released in 2025; the section says a smaller FLUX.2 [klein] was promised then. Not a gate drop, and recorded here so the ledger adds up."
   },
   {
    "kind": "digest",
    "reason": "hand-edit",
    "item": null,
    "item_chars": 185,
    "text_sha": "6f53594861ff",
    "section": "the-company-today-and-what-the-record-does-not-say",
    "withheld": "one section digest removed from this pack by hand",
    "removed_utc": "2026-09-25",
    "why": "the digest states the $3.25B valuation and $450M raised as fact; the page says BFL said it",
    "detail": "removed from this pack by hand on 2026-09-25 (UTC), after the writer ran and after the gates had counted: the digest states the $3.25B valuation and $450M raised as fact; the page says BFL said it. Not a gate drop, and recorded here so the ledger adds up."
   },
   {
    "kind": "chip",
    "reason": "hand-edit",
    "item": null,
    "item_chars": 227,
    "text_sha": "07aa42bb3703",
    "chip_id": "c-06a8d1b7",
    "withheld": "one chip removed from this pack by hand",
    "removed_utc": "2026-09-25",
    "why": "the chip credits the page's own glossary definition of distilled to the company",
    "detail": "removed from this pack by hand on 2026-09-25 (UTC), after the writer ran and after the gates had counted: the chip credits the page's own glossary definition of distilled to the company. Not a gate drop, and recorded here so the ledger adds up."
   },
   {
    "kind": "chip",
    "reason": "hand-edit",
    "item": null,
    "item_chars": 154,
    "text_sha": "6ac25c037336",
    "chip_id": "c-44054d2d",
    "withheld": "one chip removed from this pack by hand",
    "removed_utc": "2026-09-25",
    "why": "the chip states BFL's announced post-money valuation as the company's reached value, without 'BFL said'",
    "detail": "removed from this pack by hand on 2026-09-25 (UTC), after the writer ran and after the gates had counted: the chip states BFL's announced post-money valuation as the company's reached value, without 'BFL said'. Not a gate drop, and recorded here so the ledger adds up."
   }
  ]
 },
 "generated_utc": "2026-09-25T21:02:32Z"
}