Meta delays Avocado AI model launch after falling behind Google, OpenAI, and Anthropic in tests

Meta's New AI Model Is Reportedly Delayed Again. Is 'Avocado' Toast?

Meta's Avocado isn't ripe quite yet. The company has reportedly delayed the release of its next-generation foundational model until May, according to The New York Times, citing unnamed sources. The model has fallen short "on internal tests for reasoning, coding and writing," compared with rival models from Google, OpenAI and Anthropic. Meta has spent billions of dollars overhauling its efforts to build artificial intelligence models and products, including purchasing a stake in Alexandr Wang's startup for $14.3 billion to make him chief AI officer. The company has poured buckets of cash into hiring top AI engineers last year across its organization. In a January earnings call, Meta confirmed it plans to raise its spending from $72 billion last year to $115 billion to $135 billion, attributing the increase to supporting its AI labs. But all that money hasn't bought the company the results it hoped for, with Google, OpenAI and Anthropic consistently lapping Meta with their newer models. A Meta spokesperson told CNET, "As we've said publicly, our next model will be good, but more importantly, show the rapid trajectory we're on, and then we'll steadily push the frontier over the course of the year as we continue to release new models. We're excited for people to see what we've been cooking very soon." That rapid trajectory is key to catch up and keep pace with other AI builders. Google leapfrogged its rivals in November with its Gemini 3 model, showcasing its impressive coding and research abilities. OpenAI was quick to follow with updates to GPT-5. More recently, Claude Code and Cowork from Anthropic have proven to be the most reliable agentic AI available, tools that can handle tasks without human babysitting. However, the biggest AI news from Meta this year is that it's buying Moltbook, a social media platform designed exclusively for AI bots. Meta has been in the news for other reasons. A renewed wave of privacy concerns has crested over people using smart glasses, particularly the Meta Ray-Ban glasses, to record others without their knowledge or consent. A lawsuit alleges that human staffers behind Meta's smart glasses reviewed footage of people who clearly didn't know they were being recorded, like while they were undressing or having sex. On the social media side of the business, a high-profile trial is debating whether platforms like Meta's Instagram and Facebook are addictive to teens and pose significant health risks.

Meta Delays Rollout of New A.I. Model After Performance Concerns

The tech giant pushed back the timeline after spending billions to be on the cutting edge of artificial intelligence. Mark Zuckerberg, the chief executive of Meta, said in July that his company's new artificial intelligence models would "push the frontier in the next year or so." Now Mr. Zuckerberg -- who has invested billions in the A.I. race -- appears increasingly unlikely to hit that deadline, three people with knowledge of the matter said. Meta's new "frontier" A.I. model, which the company has been working on for months, has fallen short of the performance of leading A.I. models from rivals like Google, OpenAI and Anthropic on internal tests for reasoning, coding and writing, said the people, who were not authorized to speak publicly about confidential matters. The model, code-named Avocado, outperformed Meta's previous A.I. model and did better than Google's Gemini 2.5 model from March, two of the people said. But it has not performed as strongly as Gemini 3.0 from November, they said. As a result, Meta has delayed Avocado's release to at least May from this month, the people said. They added that the leaders of Meta's A.I. division had instead discussed temporarily licensing Gemini to power the company's A.I. products, though no decisions have been reached. How Meta's A.I. model performs is being closely watched in the competition over the fast-evolving technology. Google, OpenAI and Anthropic are widely regarded as the leaders in frontier A.I. models, which are the basis for developing new chatbots, video generators, coding tools and other products. Being at the forefront of A.I. development also helps companies recruit technologists and keep up a stream of experimentation.

Mark Zuckerberg's Billion-Dollar Hiring Spree Doesn't Seem to Be Going So Great

The rollout of the company’s new AI model is reportedly being pushed back due to performance concerns. Despite spending billions of dollars on AI infrastructure and poaching talent from rival companies, Meta’s AI ambitions appear to have hit a snag. The New York Times reports, citing several unnamed sources, that the social media company’s new foundational AI model is being delayed. The decision reportedly came after the model fell short in internal performance tests for reasoning, coding, and writing when compared with leading AI models from competitors like Google, OpenAI, and Anthropic. People familiar with the matter told The New York Times that the model, code-named Avocado, outperformed Meta’s previous model and Gemini 2.5, which launched last March. However, it did not perform as well as Gemini 3.0, which was released in November. Meta is now reportedly delaying the rollout of Avocado until at least May. The model had originally been planned for release in March. Meta’s AI team has discussed temporarily using Google’s Gemini models for its products. “As we've said publicly, our next model will be good, but more importantly, show the rapid trajectory we're on, and then we'll steadily push the frontier over the course of the year as we continue to release new models,†a Meta spokesperson told Gizmodo in an emailed statement. "We're excited for people to see what we've been cooking very soon." The statement closely followed what CEO Mark Zuckerberg told investors on a call in January. The report comes as Meta, the parent company of Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp, has appeared laser-focused on AI. Meta has committed to spending $600 billion on AI infrastructure in the U.S. by 2028. The company also projects its 2026 capital expenditures to reach between $115 billion and $135 billion, this year alone. Zuckerberg has said the company is ultimately trying to build artificial “superintelligence,†a type of AI that could exceed human intelligence. It has also splurged on large pay packages, some reportedly in the $100 million range, to lure talent from other AI companies. Andrew Tulloch, co-founder of Thinking Machines Lab, joined Meta in October. Some reports claim his pay package could be worth up to $1.5 billion over at least six years, tied to performance bonuses and stock incentives. In June, Meta bought a 49% stake in Scale AI, with the startup’s founder, Alexander Wang, joining Meta as its Chief AI Officer. The New York Times reports that Wang assembled a team called the TBD Lab within the company’s AI division that was working on new models, including Avocado. There have also been reports that Wang has clashed with other Meta executives, including Zuckerberg himself. A Meta spokesperson posted on X that those rumors were “Totally false.†Earlier this week, Zuckerberg posted a selfie with Wang on Threads with the caption “Meanwhile at Meta HQ.â€

Meta's New AI Image Model Doing Badly in Testing, Report Says

Meta said in January that it plans to spend somewhere between $115 billion and $135 billion in the pursuit of AI superintelligence, but it's hit a snag after its newest AI model is reportedly behind rivals. The New York Times reports that Meta's new AI image and video model, codenamed 'Avocado', has fallen short in tests when compared to models from rivals OpenAI, Google, and Anthropic. The report comes from anonymous sources inside Meta who tell the newspaper that it's failed to beat Gemini 3.0 during internal testing. Avocado was slated to be released this month, but the disappointing results have forced Meta to delay the release of Avocado until at least July. Embarassingly, Meta is now considering licensing Google Gemini to power its AI products in the short term. "As we've said publicly, our next model will be good but, more importantly, show the rapid trajectory we're on, and then we'll steadily push the frontier over the course of the year as we continue to release new models," Meta spokesman Dave Arnold tells The Times. "We're excited for people to see what we've been cooking very soon." Meta has been ploughing resources into AI, investing $14.3 billion in startup Scale AI. CEO Mark Zuckerberg has stated that Meta's new goal is to create AI "superintelligence," where AI will be smarter than humans. The Times reports that, as well as Avocado, Meta is also working on another fruit-themed model called Mango. Both are image and video generators. Meta will likely want its AI models to help out with its booming smart glasses. But that's also hit a snag: the company is now facing a class action lawsuit over the wearable technology, with plaintiffs alleging that the company misled consumers about how footage captured by the devices may be reviewed. The legal action follows a report by Swedish newspapers Svenska Dagbladet and Göteborgs-Posten that contractors tasked with labeling objects in video clips encountered private and sensitive scenes recorded by users. The workers based in Kenya said they had viewed intimate material, including bathroom visits, sexual encounters, and other personal moments.

Meta delays launch of AI model Avocado in latest setback

Meta $META's latest AI fruit is ripening on company time. The New York Times reported Thursday that Meta has pushed back Avocado -- the text model meant to headline CEO Mark Zuckerberg's latest and greatest AI reset -- from a planned March debut to at least May after internal testing showed it trailing the leading systems from Google $GOOGL, OpenAI, and Anthropic on, essentially, everything: reasoning, coding, and writing. That's another ugly moment for a company that has spent lavishly to convince investors, employees, and Silicon Valley that it could buy its way back into the front rank of AI. In January, Zuckerberg told investors that Meta's first new models would be "good" and would show the "rapid trajectory" the company was on. That same month, the company said it expects 2026 capital expenditures of $115 billion to $135 billion, with the increase driven in part by Meta Superintelligence Labs. But writing giant checks and building giant data centers still doesn't guarantee a place in the top tier of the model race. The Times, citing unnamed sources familiar with the matter, reported that Avocado currently lands somewhere between Google's Gemini 2.5 and Gemini 3. That's a rough place to end up after months and months of buildup because it suggests no real progress on the one thing this project was supposed to do: make AI people talk about the company as a peer again. Building a frontier model is hard. Shipping one that can actually stand next to the best systems from Google, OpenAI, and Anthropic is harder. Meta's problem is that it has made the stakes of that challenge impossible to ignore. Meta needs a model that changes the conversation around the company. Avocado, at least for now, seems to be doing the opposite. This isn't Meta's first awkward moment in the lab. Llama 4 was delayed after failing to meet Meta's expectations on reasoning and math benchmarks, even after Zuckerberg said -- in January 2025 -- that he expected it to "become the leading state-of-the-art model" that year. The model wasn't particularly well received. In May, Meta delayed its flagship Behemoth model because engineers were struggling to produce significant enough improvements. By late June, Zuckerberg had reorganized the company's AI work under Meta Superintelligence Labs. Now, Meta's leaders are already thinking past Avocado. The next model, the Times reported, is being called Watermelon. Leaders inside Meta's AI division have discussed temporarily licensing Google's Gemini to power some of the company's AI products while Avocado catches up, The Times reports. When the company spending like it wants to own the next computing platform is reportedly discussing renting Google's brain for the interim, the catch-up story starts sounding even more expensive than its bills already are. Meta has already tried the expensive reset. This was supposed to be a quarter when the company started showing that all the spending bills, all the futuristic promises, all the talent drama, and all the superintelligence rhetoric were producing something more persuasive than ambition. Instead, the picture now looks uncomfortably familiar. And Avocado looks like another reminder that throwing billions of dollars at a problem doesn't make the benchmarks blink. Meta may still close the AI gap. Rich companies get more than one swing, and Zuckerberg clearly intends to keep paying for the at-bats. The company has vast distribution and huge infrastructure plans. But the public scorecard right now shows a company that has spent heavily, hired aggressively, reorganized repeatedly, and still has to explain why its next big model is late -- and why one of the options on the table was leaning on the rival it's eventually supposed to beat. Investors have been willing to indulge Meta's AI appetite because the core business keeps printing money. The ad machine remains a monster, and that cash flow has helped make the company's AI splurge feel, if not exactly calm, then at least defensible. When Meta reported fourth-quarter results in January, shareholders rewarded the company even as it laid out a spending plan that would have looked deranged almost anywhere else. Zuckerberg called 2026 a big year for delivering personal superintelligence. That sort of line works a lot better when the next major model shows up on time and looks like a genuine leap. But the frontier-model race is different. This is the prestige contest. This is where Google, OpenAI, and Anthropic get to look like the grown-ups, and where Meta has spent the past year trying to prove it shouldn't be sitting at the kids' table anymore. A delayed flagship model doesn't exactly help make that case. For now, Avocado looks like another reminder that frontier AI has been a humbling business for Meta. The company has money, compute, distribution, and one of the most determined CEOs in tech. What Meta still doesn't have is the clean, undeniable launch that makes all of that spending look like foresight instead of impatience.

Meta Is Delaying Its 'Superintelligent' AI Model After Performance Issues

Mark Zuckerberg has invested billions in AI, but Meta's latest model isn't keeping pace with OpenAI and Google. 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.

Meta pushes AI model 'Avocado' rollout to May or later, NYT reports - The Economic Times

Meta has postponed the release of its artificial intelligence model "Avocado" to at least May, from this month, the New York Times reported on Thursday, citing sources. The performance of Meta's new AI model currently falls between Google's AI Gemini 2.5 and ⁠Gemini 3, ⁠delaying its launch until May or June, a person familiar with the matter told Reuters. The delayed timeline comes even as the company invests heavily to expand its AI ambitions, including a roadmap for building its own chips. In January, Meta laid out capital-spending plans of between $115 billion and $135 billion for the year ⁠in the pursuit of "superintelligence" - the horizon where AI will outsmart humans. Meta's new model, which the company has ⁠been working on for months, has fallen short in performance when compared with the latest offerings from rivals, the report said. "Our next model will be good, but more importantly, show the rapid trajectory we're on, and then we'll steadily push the frontier over the course of the year as we continue to release new models," a Meta spokesperson told Reuters. "We're excited for people to see what we've been cooking very soon," the spokesperson added in an emailed statement. The ⁠leaders of Meta's AI division have discussed the possibility of temporarily licensing Gemini to power the company's AI products, the report added, although no decisions have been reached. Media outlets had reported in December that Meta was working on a text AI model code-named Avocado slated for a first-quarter launch.

Meta May Delay 'Avocado' As Tech Underwhelms In Tests Against Google Gemini And Anthropic AI Models: Report - Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG), Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL)

Meta Platforms, Inc.'s (NASDAQ:META) upcoming foundational AI model, code-named "Avocado," has reportedly underperformed compared with systems from competitors during internal evaluations. Meta's 'Avocado' AI Model Reportedly Falls Short In Internal Tests The model is designed to power future chatbots, coding assistants and other AI-driven products across Meta's ecosystem. While Avocado performed better than Meta's earlier AI systems and even surpassed an earlier version of Google's Gemini model, it reportedly did not match the capabilities of the latest Gemini release. Launch Delayed As Meta Explores Alternatives Because of the performance gap, Meta has reportedly pushed Avocado's launch back to at least May, from an earlier planned release this month. Executives have also discussed the possibility of temporarily licensing technology from Google's Gemini models to support some of Meta's AI products, though no final decision has been made. Meta did not immediately respond to Benzinga's request for comments. Zuckerberg's Massive AI Bet Zuckerberg has positioned AI as central to Meta's future strategy. The company has spent billions hiring researchers and building infrastructure to support the technology. In January 2026, Meta projected it could spend as much as $135 billion this year, nearly double the roughly $72 billion it spent last year, as it expands data centers and AI capabilities. Meta is also developing additional models, including "Mango," focused on image and video generation. Moreover, a future system is reportedly planned under the code name "Watermelon." Price Action: On Thursday, Shares of Meta fell 2.55% to $638.18 and slipped another 0.18% to $637 in after-hours trading, according to Benzinga Pro. According to Benzinga Edge Stock Rankings, Meta shares are trending lower in the short, medium and long-term, though the company's Quality score were in the 89th percentile. Disclaimer: This content was partially produced with the help of AI tools and was reviewed and published by Benzinga editors. Photo: PJ McDonnell / Shutterstock Market News and Data brought to you by Benzinga APIs To add Benzinga News as your preferred source on Google, click here.

Meta's Avocado Delay Puts $135 Billion AI Bet Under Scrutiny | PYMNTS.com

The delay follows internal testing that showed the model trailing leading systems from Google, OpenAI and Anthropic in key areas, including logical reasoning, programming and writing, the report said. Avocado outperformed Meta's previous generation models and some earlier competing systems, The Information reported Feb. 4, but it failed to match the performance of Google's newest Gemini models, per the NYT report. The gap matters because Avocado was not intended as an incremental upgrade. The model was designed to compete directly with frontier systems from OpenAI and Google and to serve as the centerpiece of Meta's next phase of AI development. Internally, the model had been framed as a major leap forward. Meta Superintelligence Labs Product Manager Megan Fu described Avocado in an internal memo as the company's most capable base model yet and suggested it had the potential to outperform rival systems once additional post-training improvements were applied, per the report from The Information. The production version has not yet met that expectation. The delay also follows a difficult year for Meta's AI efforts. The company's Llama 4 release last year failed to generate strong developer enthusiasm, prompting an internal restructuring across parts of the AI organization, The Information reported Aug. 15. Avocado had been positioned internally as the reset. The more revealing development may be what Meta is considering in the interim. The company's leadership discussed temporarily licensing Google's Gemini technology to power certain Meta products while Avocado is brought up to competitive performance, the NYT reported. No decision has been confirmed. Meta has spent years positioning open-source AI models such as Llama as a strategic alternative to proprietary systems from OpenAI and Google. Relying on Gemini, even temporarily, would invert that narrative and raise questions about how quickly Meta's internal models can reach the top tier of AI performance. The episode also underscores a broader strategic shift underway inside the company. Meta's earlier AI strategy emphasized open development and ecosystem adoption through models such as Llama. Avocado represents a move toward more tightly controlled, commercial-grade systems that could power proprietary products. That transition was already complex. A performance gap only complicates it further. Meta's broader AI roadmap remains active. A next-generation model codenamed Watermelon is under development, the NYT reported, along with an image and video generation system known internally as Mango. However, the timeline now appears less certain than the ambition. Beyond the technical delay, Avocado highlights a deeper financial question surrounding Meta's AI strategy. The company outlined capital spending plans of between $115 billion and $135 billion for 2026 as it races to build data centers, chips and infrastructure capable of supporting increasingly powerful AI models. That level of spending places Meta alongside the largest investors in AI infrastructure, including Amazon, Microsoft and Google. The difference is that those companies operate cloud businesses that directly monetize the computing power they build. Training models for internal use is only one part of the equation. The same infrastructure can also be rented to thousands of enterprise customers. Meta does not have that outlet. Instead, the company's AI monetization strategy is expected to run primarily through improvements to its existing platforms. AI is already being used to refine ad targeting, generate content recommendations and power assistant tools across Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp. Those applications could drive revenue growth by increasing engagement and advertising efficiency. However, they do not produce the same direct revenue stream as selling AI compute or model access through the cloud. During Meta's fourth-quarter earnings call, CEO Mark Zuckerberg positioned AI as the company's next long-term growth engine. Avocado was supposed to provide the near-term proof.

Meta delays release of new AI, weighs licensing Google's Gemini...

Mark Zuckerberg's Meta is reportedly delaying the release of its next artificial intelligence model at least about two months after internal tests showed the tech falling short of rival models from Google, OpenAI and Anthropic. The leaders of Meta's AI division are considering temporarily licensing Google's Gemini to power its products in the wake of the lackluster results, the New York Times reported this week. Internal Meta testing showed lackluster performance for its new "Avocado" AI model even after techies worked on it for months, anonymous sources told the Times. Instead of rolling out this month, Avocado is reportedly expected to launch around May after it failed to measure up in terms of reasoning, coding and writing. The setbacks come after Zuckerberg, 41, threw the kitchen sink at developing AI. Meta has spent billions hiring top AI talent and committed $600 billion to building data centers to power the tech. Meta projected in January it would spend as much as $135 billion this year alone -- nearly twice the $72 billion it blew through last year developing AI. Zuckerberg said in July that Meta's new AI models would "push the frontier in the next year or so." The Times noted that Avocado outperformed Meta's previous AI model and did better than Google's Gemini 2.5 from March -- but lagged behind Gemini 3.0 from November. "I expect our first models will be good, but more importantly will show the rapid trajectory we're on," Zuckerberg said on an investor call in January. A Meta spokesperson said: "We'll steadily push the frontier over the course of the year as we continue to release new models. We're excited for people to see what we've been cooking very soon." AI efforts by Meta, the owner of Facebook, Instagram and Threads, are being closely watched in the artificial intelligence arms race. Google, OpenAI and Anthropic are widely regarded as ahead in developing foundational AI models -- the underlying technology for chatbots, video generators and coding tools. Zuckerberg kicked his AI effort into overdrive after Meta's previous model, Llama 4, fell short of expectations last year. To catch up, the company invested $14.3 billion in the startup Scale AI in June and made its 29-year-old chief executive, Alexandr Wang, its new chief AI officer. Wang helped assemble an AI lab within Meta called TBD Lab. The unit finished the first stage of Avocado's development, called "pre-training," at the end of last year, according to the Times. In January, it began the next phase, "post-training," and set a target release date of mid-March. The only product Wang's AI division has released so far is Vibes, an AI video app similar to OpenAI's Sora. TBD Lab, which has around 100 employees, has seen some turnover, with a handful of researchers departing before Avocado's release, according to the report. Meta's top brass have reportedly debated whether or not its new AI model will be "open source," meaning parts of its code would be available to other developers. Meta has long championed open source models, arguing that they help advance tech, while companies like OpenAI and Anthropic have said letting others build off their AI would pose safety risks. The Times article detailed tensions between Wang and Chris Cox, Meta's chief product officer, and Andrew Bosworth, the chief technology officer. Disagreements reportedly centered on how new AI models should improve Meta's ad business. Meta wrote in a note to employees last week, which was reported earlier by the Wall Street Journal, that it would create an AI team under Bosworth that would work with Wang. Last week, Meta told employees it was creating an AI team under Bosworth that would work with Wang, according to the Wall Street Journal.

Meta Pushes Back Avocado AI Launch, Licenses Gemini Tech

Avocado has faced multiple delays over the past few years. Meta insiders initially expected the model before the end of 2025, but it slipped to the first quarter of 2026 amid training and performance-testing challenges, as CNBC first . Bloomberg reported around the same time that Avocado was expected to debut "sometime next spring" and could be launched as a closed, proprietary model -- a departure from Meta's previous open-source Llama strategy. The delay of Avocado AI is the latest setback in Meta's efforts to catch up with other AI competitors. Mark Zuckerberg's AI rivals have long been ahead.

Meta delays Avocado AI model launch amid performance concerns: Report

CEO Mark Zuckerberg has reaffirmed Meta's aggressive AI push, including $115-$135 billion in planned infrastructure investments. Meta has reportedly pushed back the launch of its upcoming AI model, codenamed Avocado. This comes after the New York Times report, citing sources, stated that this model was supposed to launch this month but will now debut in May or later. According to a Reuters report, the delay is linked to performance concerns. The new AI model is currently said to perform between Gemini 2.5 and Gemini 3, developed by Google. However, it has not yet matched the latest capabilities offered by competing AI systems, which has led Meta to reconsider the launch timeline. The report also stated that the company has been working on the Avocado model for several months, but the internal evaluations showed the model still needs improvements before it can compete effectively with rival platforms. Also read: From garage to the world: Tim Cook pens emotional note before Apple turns 50 Even after the delay, the report stated that Meta continues to increase spending on artificial intelligence. Previously, the company announced its plan to invest between $115 billion and $135 billion in capital expenditure as it builds infrastructure and technologies aimed at achieving what it describes as superintelligence. The report also mentioned that a Meta spokesperson also said the company remains confident about the direction of its AI development. The spokesperson reiterated comments previously made by CEO Mark Zuckerberg during the earnings call, stating that the company's next AI model will show big progress that Meta is making in the field. The spokesperson also indicated that additional models are expected to be released over the course of the year. Further, the report also stated that internal discussions at Meta have also explored the possibility of temporarily licensing Google's Gemini technology to support some of its AI products. However, sources familiar with the matter said that no final decision has been made on that front. The Avocado model first surfaced late last year, when media outlets revealed that Meta was developing a new text-focused AI system set to launch in the first quarter. The updated timeline indicates that the company is taking more time to improve the model before making it publicly available.