--- title: "Black Forest Labs tops Nvidia's own robot benchmark days before Germany's Nvidia summit" description: "The lab's FLUX 3 Action robot model leads RoboLab-120, a benchmark Nvidia runs. Germany's reported reply is a physical-AI agreement with Nvidia worth hundreds of millions of euros, with Black Forest Labs among the participants." publisher: "The Inference" section: "Frontier" published: 2026-10-15T19:16:39.122Z modified: 2026-10-15T19:16:39.122Z canonical: https://theinference.org/article/black-forest-labs-tops-nvidia-s-own-robot-benchmark-days-before-germany-s-nvidia-summit language: en keywords: "Nvidia, Robotics, Open Weights, Black Forest Labs, Germany, Physical AI" --- # Black Forest Labs tops Nvidia's own robot benchmark days before Germany's Nvidia summit > The lab's FLUX 3 Action robot model leads RoboLab-120, a benchmark Nvidia runs. Germany's reported reply is a physical-AI agreement with Nvidia worth hundreds of millions of euros, with Black Forest Labs among the participants. ## A German lab takes Nvidia's benchmark [Black Forest Labs](https://theinference.org/markets/companies/black-forest-labs), the Freiburg and San Francisco lab behind the FLUX image generators, has [released FLUX 3 Action](https://bfl.ai/models/flux-3-action), a 7-billion-parameter open-weight model that turns camera feeds and written instructions into robot motion [1][2][3]. It completes 42.9 percent of 1,200 trials on RoboLab-120, the simulation benchmark [Nvidia](https://theinference.org/markets/companies/nvidia) presented in July and runs itself, for first place [1][2]. Handelsblatt reported on October 15 that Berlin is set to unveil [a physical-AI agreement with Nvidia at Monday's Invest in Germany summit](https://seekingalpha.com/news/4653443-german-govt-set-to-unveil-partnership-with-nvidia-for-automation-robots-report), which Nvidia chief executive [Jensen Huang](https://theinference.org/markets/people/jensen-huang) and Chancellor Friedrich Merz are due to attend [4][5]. Nvidia's own entries trail on its leaderboard: its 16-billion-parameter Cosmos3-Nano-Policy scores 36.8 percent and its GR00T N1.6 robot model just 7.2 [1][2]. World-action models, the video-trained class FLUX 3 Action belongs to, hold four of the benchmark's top five spots [1]. *Chart: **A German lab leads Nvidia's own robot benchmark** Bar chart of RoboLab-120 success rates: FLUX 3 Action (BFL) 42.92%, OASIS WAM 39.0%, Cosmos3-Nano-Policy (Nvidia) 36.8%, π0.5 (Physical Intelligence) 28.0%, DreamZero 25.7%, GR00T N1.6 (Nvidia) 7.2%* *RoboLab-120 overall success rate, share of 1,200 simulated trials, from the leaderboard table in Black Forest Labs' September 2026 report. Nvidia presented RoboLab in July and runs the leaderboard. [2]* ## On a real arm, the lead narrows to one attempt In blind tests the lab arranged with Positronic Robotics, an outside evaluation firm, a Franka robot arm on FLUX 3 Action completed 28 of 30 attempts across ten tasks, against 27 for Cosmos 3 Nano and 13 for [Physical Intelligence](https://theinference.org/markets/companies/physical-intelligence)'s π0.5 [1][2]. The operator did not know which model drove which attempt [2]. ![A Franka Emika robot arm in side view at a trade fair booth, reaching over a table of snacks](https://storage.googleapis.com/theinference-public/img/61ace804a61a2d5b.jpg) *A Franka Emika robot arm. BFL's blind tests put FLUX 3 Action and its rivals on a Franka arm, with an outside evaluation firm judging. (Ims, CC BY-SA 4.0 via Wikimedia Commons)* *Chart: **One attempt in 30 separates BFL and Nvidia on real arms** Bar chart of blind-test scores on a Franka arm: FLUX 3 Action 28 of 30 attempts, Cosmos 3 Nano 27 of 30, pi0.5 13 of 30* *Correct attempts out of 30, across ten tasks, for a Franka robot arm in blind tests Black Forest Labs arranged with Positronic Robotics, an outside evaluation firm; the operator did not know which model drove which attempt. Sources: DeepLearning.AI, The Batch; Black Forest Labs, FLUX 3 Action report. [1][2]* ## Germany's answer is a deal with Nvidia The reported deal carries hundreds of millions of euros of state money for AI compute purchases and model training, with Nvidia contributing engineers [4][5]. Roughly a dozen German companies would take part, Siemens, Audi and Black Forest Labs among them [4]. Reuters reports the agreement would be built around SOOFI, the Sovereign Open Source Foundation Models consortium [launched in September 2025 and funded with €20 million by Germany's economics ministry](https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/other/germany-plans-ai-cooperation-deal-with-nvidia-handelsblatt-says/ar-AA2ejDoh) [5][6]. SOOFI's first model was trained on Deutsche Telekom's Industrial AI Cloud in Munich, a site expanded with Nvidia for roughly €1 billion [5][7]. No comment was available from the German government [6]. ## Open weights, Nvidia plumbing Robin Rombach, who leads the lab, [argued in the French daily L'Opinion on October 10](https://www.lopinion.fr/economie/robin-rombach-black-forest-labs-prone-louverture-des-modeles-pour-renforcer-lindependance-strategique-europeenne) that open model weights strengthen Europe's strategic independence [8]. The lab's own credits complicate that pitch: FLUX 3 Action was trained on Nvidia GB200 systems, Nvidia helped move it to Jetson edge computers, and [BFL](https://theinference.org/markets/companies/black-forest-labs) thanks Nvidia's Isaac Lab and RoboLab teams for "the basis for most of our evaluations" [1][2]. The lab, about 100 people, is valued at $3.25 billion on more than $450 million raised, with Nvidia among the investors per DataNorth, an industry tracker [3]. Free commercial use of the weights stops at $5 million of annual revenue [1]. ## The record awaits real robots Open weights are the strongest form of the sovereignty case: a lab with a low-cost SO-101 arm and about 200 demonstrations can fine-tune the top-ranked model itself [1]. RoboArena, the independent ladder that scores models on real arms, [has listed none of RoboLab's top five](https://www.deeplearning.ai/the-batch/video-models-steer-robots), and on the benchmark's hardest tasks two rivals outrank FLUX 3 Action [1]. On the record so far, Europe's independence project runs through Nvidia, which supplies the chips, the benchmark and the evaluation code, and, per one tracker, a stake in the winning lab [1][2][3]. Rival silicon suppliers lose the order if Monday's compute budget lands there, and labs above the $5 million line pay Black Forest Labs for a license either way [1][5]. Watch Monday for the named compute supplier and participant list, and RoboArena for FLUX 3 Action's first real-robot entry [1][5]. ## Takeaway FLUX 3 Action leads Nvidia's own RoboLab-120 at 42.9 percent, but Europe's robot-sovereignty bid still runs through Nvidia's chips, benchmark and cash ahead of Monday's Berlin summit. ## Sources 1. [DeepLearning.AI, The Batch, Video models steer robots, 15 October 2026](https://www.deeplearning.ai/the-batch/video-models-steer-robots) 2. [Black Forest Labs, FLUX 3 Action: A 7B World Action Model for Robot Control, September 2026](https://bfl.ai/models/flux-3-action) 3. [Tech CEO Daily, FLUX 3 Image: Black Forest Labs' 4K image model, October 2026](https://www.techceodaily.com/ai/black-forest-labs-flux-3-image-model) 4. [Seeking Alpha, German gov't set to unveil partnership with Nvidia for automation, robots: report, 15 October 2026](https://seekingalpha.com/news/4653443-german-govt-set-to-unveil-partnership-with-nvidia-for-automation-robots-report) 5. [Investing.com via Yahoo Finance, Germany to partner with Nvidia on AI development initiative: report, 15 October 2026](https://finance.yahoo.com/technology/ai/articles/germany-partner-nvidia-ai-development-152846723.html) 6. [Reuters via MSN, Germany plans AI cooperation deal with Nvidia, Handelsblatt says, 15 October 2026](https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/other/germany-plans-ai-cooperation-deal-with-nvidia-handelsblatt-says/ar-AA2ejDoh) 7. [Crypto Briefing, German government plans Nvidia partnership, Handelsblatt reports, 15 October 2026](https://cryptobriefing.com/german-government-nvidia-partnership-handelsblatt/) 8. [L'Opinion, Robin Rombach (Black Forest Labs) prône l'ouverture des modèles pour renforcer l'indépendance stratégique européenne, 10 October 2026](https://www.lopinion.fr/economie/robin-rombach-black-forest-labs-prone-louverture-des-modeles-pour-renforcer-lindependance-strategique-europeenne) --- Black Forest Labs tops Nvidia's own robot benchmark days before Germany's Nvidia summit — The Inference. Canonical: https://theinference.org/article/black-forest-labs-tops-nvidia-s-own-robot-benchmark-days-before-germany-s-nvidia-summit