Latest news with #Meta
Business Insider
29 minutes ago
- Business
- Business Insider
Meta's superintelligence lab discussing AI strategy overhaul, NY Times says
Meta's recently-established superintelligence lab has discussed making a series of changes to the Facebook parent's AI strategy, in what would amount to a serious overhaul at the company, the New York Times' Eli Tan reports. Last week, a group of top members of the lab, including new chief AI officer Alexandr Wang, held talks that weighed potentially abandoning Meta 's Behemoth open source AI model in favor of creating a closed model, the author says, citing two people with knowledge of the matter. Elevate Your Investing Strategy: Take advantage of TipRanks Premium at 50% off! Unlock powerful investing tools, advanced data, and expert analyst insights to help you invest with confidence. Make smarter investment decisions with TipRanks' Smart Investor Picks, delivered to your inbox every week.
Yahoo
an hour ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Meta built its AI reputation on openness — that may be changing
Top members of Meta's new Superintelligence Lab discussed pivoting away from the company's powerful open-source AI model, Behemoth, and instead developing a closed model, reports The New York Times. Sources told The Times that Meta had completed training on Behemoth, but delayed its release due to underwhelming internal performance. When the new Superintelligence Lab launched, testing on the model reportedly halted. The discussions are just that — discussions. Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg would still need to sign off on any changes, and a company spokesperson told TechCrunch that Meta's position on open source AI is 'unchanged.' 'We plan to continue releasing leading open source models,' the spokesperson said. 'We haven't released everything we've developed historically and we expect to continue training a mix of open and closed models going forward.' The spokesperson did not comment on Meta's potential shift away from Behemoth. If that happens so that Meta can prioritize closed-source models, it would mark a major philosophical change for the company. While Meta deploys more advanced closed-source models internally, like those powering its Meta AI assistant, Zuckerberg had made open source a central part of the company's external AI strategy — a way to keep AI development moving faster. He loudly positioned the Llama family's openness as a differentiator from competitors like OpenAI, which Zuckerberg publicly criticized for becoming more closed after partnering with Microsoft. But Meta is under pressure to monetize beyond ads as it pours billions into AI. That includes paying massive signing bonuses and nine-figure salaries to poach top researchers, building out new data centers, and covering the enormous costs of developing artificial general intelligence (AGI), or 'superintelligence.' Despite having one of the top AI research labs in the world, Meta still lags behind rivals like OpenAI, Anthropic, Google DeepMind, and xAI when it comes to commercializing its AI work. If Meta prioritizes closed models, it could suggest that openness was a strategic play, not an ideological one. Past comments from Zuckerberg hint at an ambivalence toward committing to open sourcing Meta's models. On a podcast last summer, he said: We're obviously very pro open source, but I haven't committed to releasing every single thing that we do. I'm basically very inclined to think that open sourcing is going to be good for the community and also good for us because we'll benefit from the innovations. If at some point, however, there's some qualitative change in what the thing is capable of, and we feel like it's not responsible to open source it, then we won't. It's all very difficult to predict. Closed models would give Meta more control and more ways to monetize — especially if it believes the talent it has acquired can deliver competitive, best-in-class performance. Such a shift could also reshape the AI landscape. Open-source momentum, largely driven by Meta and models like Llama, could slow, even as OpenAI gears up to release its still-delayed open model. Power could swing back toward the major players with closed ecosystems, while open-source development might remain a product of grassroots efforts. The ripple effects would continue across the startup ecosystem, especially for smaller companies focused on fine-turning, safety, and model alignment that rely on access to open foundation models. On the world stage, Meta's retreat from open source could potentially cede ground to China, which has embraced open-source AI – like DeepSeek and Moonshot AI — as a way to build domestic capability and global influence. Error while retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error while retrieving data Error while retrieving data Error while retrieving data Error while retrieving data
Business Insider
an hour ago
- Business
- Business Insider
Meta's Zuckerberg Plans to Spend ‘Hundreds of Billions of Dollars' to Build Superclusters
Social media firm Meta Platforms (META) is making a huge investment in artificial intelligence, with CEO Mark Zuckerberg announcing plans to spend 'hundreds of billions of dollars' to build powerful computing systems called superclusters. These massive AI data centers will be used to train and run advanced AI models, which will help Meta compete with companies like OpenAI and Google (GOOGL). Interestingly, Zuckerberg said that the first supercluster, called Prometheus, will go live in 2026, and another one, Hyperion, is expected to eventually scale up to 5 gigawatts. Elevate Your Investing Strategy: Take advantage of TipRanks Premium at 50% off! Unlock powerful investing tools, advanced data, and expert analyst insights to help you invest with confidence. Make smarter investment decisions with TipRanks' Smart Investor Picks, delivered to your inbox every week. He believes that these centers will give Meta more computing power per researcher than any other company. Zuckerberg shared these updates in posts on Facebook and Threads, while also pointing out that Meta can afford these investments thanks to its strong advertising business. In addition, the company raised its 2025 capital spending plans to between $64 billion and $72 billion in order to support this AI growth. The new AI tools and infrastructure are expected to support Meta products like the Meta AI app, image-to-video ad generators, and smart glasses. It is worth mentioning that this AI push is being led by Meta's new division called Meta Superintelligence Labs, which was formed in June after the firm struggled with its Llama 4 model. This has led Meta to bring in high-profile leaders like Alexandr Wang, the former CEO of Scale AI, and Nat Friedman, the former head of GitHub. Notably, Meta has already invested $14.3 billion in Scale AI and is now working to buy a minority stake in investment funds tied to Friedman and Daniel Gross. It is also spending heavily to poach top talent from competitors. Is Meta a Buy, Sell, or Hold? Turning to Wall Street, analysts have a Strong Buy consensus rating on META stock based on 41 Buys, four Holds, and zero Sells assigned in the past three months, as indicated by the graphic below. Furthermore, the average META price target of $735.21 per share implies that shares are near fair value.
The Verge
2 hours ago
- Business
- The Verge
Meta is building 'several' multi-gigawatt compute clusters, according to Mark Zuckerberg.
Posted Jul 14, 2025 at 11:33 PM UTC Meta is building 'several' multi-gigawatt compute clusters, according to Mark Zuckerberg. 'We're calling the first one Prometheus and it's coming online in '26,' Zuckerberg says. 'We're also building Hyperion, which will be able to scale up to 5GW over several years.' He also pointed to a SemiAnalysis report that goes into detail about Meta's AI 'Superintelligence' strategy, including where the company has made some missteps and how it's moving forward.
TechCrunch
2 hours ago
- Business
- TechCrunch
Meta built its AI reputation on openness — that may be changing
Top members of Meta's new Superintelligence Lab discussed pivoting away from the company's powerful open-source AI model, Behemoth, and instead developing a closed model, reports The New York Times. Sources told The Times that Meta had completed training on Behemoth, but delayed its release due to underwhelming internal performance. When the new Superintelligence Lab launched, testing on the model reportedly halted. The discussions are just that – discussions. Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg would still need to sign off on any changes, and a company spokesperson told TechCrunch that Meta's position on open source AI is 'unchanged.' 'We plan to continue releasing leading open source models,' the spokesperson said. 'We haven't released everything we've developed historically and we expect to continue training a mix of open and closed models going forward.' The spokesperson did not comment on Meta's potential shift away from Behemoth. If that happens so that Meta can prioritize closed-source models, it would mark a major philosophical change for the company. While Meta deploys more advanced closed-source models internally, like those powering its Meta AI assistant, Zuckerberg had made open source a central part of the company's external AI strategy — a way to keep AI development moving faster. He loudly positioned the Llama family's openness as a differentiator from competitors like OpenAI, which Zuckerberg publicly criticized for becoming more closed after partnering with Microsoft. But Meta is under pressure to monetize beyond ads as it pours billions into AI. That includes paying massive signing bonuses and nine-figure salaries to poach top researchers, building out new data centers, and covering the enormous costs of developing artificial general intelligence (AGI), or 'superintelligence.' Techcrunch event Save up to $475 on your TechCrunch All Stage pass Build smarter. Scale faster. Connect deeper. Join visionaries from Precursor Ventures, NEA, Index Ventures, Underscore VC, and beyond for a day packed with strategies, workshops, and meaningful connections. Save $450 on your TechCrunch All Stage pass Build smarter. Scale faster. Connect deeper. Join visionaries from Precursor Ventures, NEA, Index Ventures, Underscore VC, and beyond for a day packed with strategies, workshops, and meaningful connections. Boston, MA | REGISTER NOW Despite having one of the top AI research labs in the world, Meta still lags behind rivals like OpenAI, Anthropic, Google DeepMind, and xAI when it comes to commercializing its AI work. If Meta prioritizes closed models, it could suggest that openness was a strategic play, not an ideological one. Past comments from Zuckerberg hint at an ambivalence toward committing to open sourcing Meta's models. On a podcast last summer, he said: 'We're obviously very pro open source, but I haven't committed to releasing every single thing that we do. I'm basically very inclined to think that open sourcing is going to be good for the community and also good for us because we'll benefit from the innovations. If at some point, however, there's some qualitative change in what the thing is capable of, and we feel like it's not responsible to open source it, then we won't. It's all very difficult to predict.' Closed models would give Meta more control and more ways to monetize – especially if it believes the talent it has acquired can deliver competitive, best-in-class performance. Such a shift could also reshape the AI landscape. Open-source momentum, largely driven by Meta and models like Llama, could slow, even as OpenAI gears up to release its still-delayed open model. Power could swing back toward the major players with closed ecosystems, while open-source development might remain a product of grassroots efforts. The ripple effects would continue across the startup ecosystem, especially for smaller companies focused on fine-turning, safety, and model alignment that rely on access to open foundation models. On the world stage, Meta's retreat from open source could potentially cede ground to China, which has embraced open-source AI – like DeepSeek and Moonshot AI – as a way to build domestic capability and global influence.
