Mark Zuckerberg’s $600 billion bet on AI isn’t paying off as planned. Meta delayed the release of its new AI model to at least May. The tech fell short of rivals like OpenAI, Google, and Anthropic on internal tests for reasoning, coding, and writing. Meta’s model, code-named Avocado, outperformed its previous AI and Google’s older Gemini 2.5 model, but couldn’t beat Google’s latest Gemini 3.0 from November.
Zuckerberg has staked Meta’s future on leading AI development, declaring last year that the company’s new goal was to create a “superintelligent” form of AI that would lead to “a new era for humanity.” Meta projected it would spend as much as $135 billion this year on AI—nearly twice the $72 billion it spent last year.
As if losing out to competitors isn’t bad enough, Meta’s AI division has discussed temporarily licensing Google’s Gemini to power the company’s AI products while Avocado is delayed. No decisions have been reached.
Mark Zuckerberg’s $600 billion bet on AI isn’t paying off as planned. Meta delayed the release of its new AI model to at least May. The tech fell short of rivals like OpenAI, Google, and Anthropic on internal tests for reasoning, coding, and writing. Meta’s model, code-named Avocado, outperformed its previous AI and Google’s older Gemini 2.5 model, but couldn’t beat Google’s latest Gemini 3.0 from November.
Zuckerberg has staked Meta’s future on leading AI development, declaring last year that the company’s new goal was to create a “superintelligent” form of AI that would lead to “a new era for humanity.” Meta projected it would spend as much as $135 billion this year on AI—nearly twice the $72 billion it spent last year.
As if losing out to competitors isn’t bad enough, Meta’s AI division has discussed temporarily licensing Google’s Gemini to power the company’s AI products while Avocado is delayed. No decisions have been reached.
