Meta Delays 'Behemoth' AI Model Release, Raising Questions About AI Development Strategy

Meta Reportedly Delays 'Behemoth' AI Model: What This Could Mean for Its AI Tools

I've been covering technology and mobile for 12 years, first as a telecommunications reporter and assistant editor at ZDNet in Australia, then as CNET's West Coast head of breaking news, and now in the Thought Leadership team. Meta reportedly has pushed back the release of its Behemoth large language model for its artificial intelligence tools, delaying it until the fall. Behemoth was originally planned to release in April to coincide with Meta's first AI conference, LlamaCon, but it was delayed until June before this latest delay, according to a report by The Wall Street Journal on Thursday. Meta released Llama 4 in April. Llama -- Large Language Model Meta AI -- is Meta's family of LLMs. But Meta AI engineers are concerned the capabilities in the Behemoth LLM aren't a significant enough improvement over what's already available via Llama 4 to warrant a June release, according to the Journal, which cites unnamed sources within Meta. A large language model is what sits behind the chatbot interface you interact with when you ask AI tools like ChatGPT, Gemini and Meta AI a question. LLMs understand and generate human-like text. Behemoth is "one of the smartest LLMs in the world and our most powerful yet to serve as a teacher for our new models," Meta said in April. The tech giant aims to become one of the world's biggest AI providers and has already woven AI into how people interact on many of its apps across Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp and Messenger, including helping with writing posts and captions and editing your images. Meta also released a standalone app for Meta AI at the end of April, which includes a hub for its Ray-Ban smart glasses. CNET social media and AI reporter Katelyn Chedraoui, who reported on LlamaCon in April, said this fresh delay adds to concerns that Meta is already behind the curve as far as what its AI tools are capable of. "Meta's reported decision to delay the release of its new Llama models means the company could fall even further behind other big companies like OpenAI and Google," Chedraoui said. "The race to build advanced and affordable AI is extremely competitive. The concern for Meta is how far ahead competitors will advance while it's still working on refining the models it has already announced." A representative for Meta didn't immediately respond to a request for comment.

Meta delays 'Behemoth' AI model, handing OpenAI and Google even more of a head start

Last month, Meta hosted its first generative AI developer conference, LlamaCon, where it planned to release the "Behemoth" large language model. Instead, the company pushed the release to June, and now, a new report suggests it might slip further -- to the fall or later. Large language models (LLMs) power AI chatbots such as ChatGPT, Gemini, and Meta AI, processing prompts on the fly and generating human-like text in response. Behemoth was billed as Meta's "most powerful yet" LLM -- "one of the smartest in the world" -- and meant to serve as a "teacher" for future models. That's the public story; internally, concerns are brewing. Also: Meta's new AI app delivers a chatbot with a social media twist Inside Meta, engineers reportedly worry that Behemoth does not offer enough of an improvement over existing models to "justify" a public release. Keep in mind: Meta released Llama 4 in April. (Llama, short for Large Language Model Meta AI, is Meta's family of LLMs.) To date, two smaller Llama 4 variants, Scout and Maverick, are available, and Meta has teased another lightweight version. ZDNET requested a comment from Meta and will update this article if a representative responds. Meta integrates AI features across Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, and Messenger, letting you do things like draft posts and captions, customize chat backgrounds, and even edit images. At the end of April, the company also rolled out a standalone Meta AI app. But the continued delay of Behemoth underscores the challenge Meta still faces in keeping pace with OpenAI and Google. Also: I test a lot of AI coding tools, and this stunning new OpenAI release just saved me days of work Ultimately, competitors are shipping new releases at breakneck speed, while Meta still appears to be refining and training an LLM it already announced -- and has now repeatedly delayed. Get the morning's top stories in your inbox each day with our Tech Today newsletter.

Meta's 'Behemoth' Llama 4 model might still be months away

The company's engineers are "struggling" to make improvements, according to a new report. Last month, Meta , its first ever generative AI conference. But while the event delivered some notable improvements for developers, it also felt a bit underwhelming considering how important AI is to the company. Now, we know a bit more about why, thanks to a in The Wall Street Journal. According to the report, Meta had originally intended to release its "Behemoth" Llama 4 model at the April developer event, but later delayed its release to June. Now, it's apparently been pushed back again, potentially until "fall or later." Meta engineers are reportedly "struggling to significantly improve the capabilities" of the model that Mark Zuckerberg has called "the highest performing base model in the world." Meta has already released two smaller Llama 4 models, , and has also teased a fourth lightweight model that's apparently nicknamed "Little Llama." Meanwhile, the "Behemoth" model will have 288 billion active parameters and "outperforms GPT-4.5, Claude Sonnet 3.7, and Gemini 2.0 Pro on several STEM benchmarks," the company said . Meta has never given a firm timeline of when to expect the model. The company said last month that it was "still training." And while Behemoth got a few nods during the LlamaCon keynote, there were no updates on when it might actually be ready. That's probably because it could still be several months. Inside Meta there are apparently questions "about whether improvements over prior versions are significant enough to justify public release." Meta didn't immediately respond to a request for comment. As the report notes, it wouldn't be the first company to run into snags as it races to release new models and outpace competitors. But the delay is still notable given the Meta's lofty ambitions when it comes to AI. Zuckerberg has made AI with Meta planning to spend as much as on its AI infrastructure this year.

Meta delays "Behemoth" AI model release, per report

Why it matters: It's another indicator that the AI industry's scaling strategy -- "just make everything bigger" -- could be hitting a wall. Driving the news: The Journal says that Behemoth is now expected to be released in the fall or even later. It was originally scheduled to coincide with Meta's Llamacon event last month, then later postponed till June. The big picture: Meta is spending tens of billions of dollars on its AI projects, and till recently it had made fast progress catching up with rivals like Google and OpenAI. Between the lines: Meta's disappointments mirror a broader worry inside the AI industry that progress dependent on scaling up models may be plateauing.

It looks like Meta just hit a big AI roadblock

Meta (META-2.36%) reportedly has delayed the release of its latest artificial intelligence model, known internally as "Behemoth," raising concerns among employees about the effectiveness and direction of the company's massive AI investments. Engineers have struggled to improve the large-language model's performance compared to earlier versions in the Llama model family, The Wall Street Journal (NWSA-0.90%) reports. This has prompted internal debate about whether the upgrade is substantial enough to merit public release, sources told the Journal. Shares in Meta were down more than 2% by Thursday's close. Initially set for an April debut during Meta's first AI developer conference, Behemoth's launch was pushed to June and potentially has been postponed until at least the fall. When Meta released two smaller Llama models in April, the company was praised for the speed with which it has caught up with rivals when it comes to developing its own generative AI tools. The company now faces increasing pressure to demonstrate meaningful progress with Behemoth and signal to Wall Street it can follow through with a return-on-investment. Meta has spent billions on AI development, with plans for up to $65 billion in capital expenditures this year. Its stock price to earnings ratio is 25.05, as of May 15, meaning investors are paying $25.05 for every $1 of earnings. Though Meta has publicly claimed Behemoth outperforms competing models such as OpenAI, Google (GOOGL-1.57%), and Anthropic in some benchmarks, internal sources told the Journal that the model is facing significant training challenges, and its real-world performance may not live up to the company's public claims. Meta's AI journey began with its Fundamental AI Research Team, which developed the original Llama models in early 2023. However, 11 of the 14 authors of the initial Llama paper have since left the company, and newer versions are being built by a different team. Controversy also arose in April when it was revealed that the model Meta submitted to a widely used AI chatbot leaderboard was not the same version released to the public. Meta later admitted it had optimized the submitted model specifically for the benchmark. Meta is not alone in facing delays, however. OpenAI's next major model, GPT-5, has also been postponed, with the company instead rolling out an intermediate version called GPT-4.5. Anthropic has likewise delayed the release of Claude 3.5 Opus, a larger and more powerful AI model, though it said the release is imminent.

Meta to postpone release of Llama 4 Behemoth model, report claims - SiliconANGLE

Meta to postpone release of Llama 4 Behemoth model, report claims Meta Platforms Inc. is likely to delay the release of its upcoming Llama 4 Behemoth artificial intelligence model, in a move that could have serious implications for the broader AI industry. In an exclusive report, the Wall Street Journal cites people with knowledge of the matter as saying Llama 4 Behemoth's debut is being pushed back from early summer to the fall of this year, or potentially even later. According to the report, Meta is struggling to improve the large language model's capabilities enough to justify an earlier launch. It's said to be worried that its performance won't match earlier claims made by the company. The report casts doubt on Meta's multibillion-dollar AI strategy, and sent its stock down more than 3% during regular trading today. The delay is a sign that development in the AI industry is potentially slowing, and raises questions about the vast amounts of money Meta has been spending on AI infrastructure. Earlier this year, Meta said it plans to spend up to $72 billion on capital expenditures this year, with most of that going toward AI. The Journal says internal frustration is mounting, as some executives reportedly blame the Llama 4 models team for the delayed progress on Behemoth. Meta is said to be contemplating making some "significant management changes" to the AI product group responsible for Llama 4 Behemoth's development, the Journal added. Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg has not yet set a public timeline for the launch of Behemoth, and could yet decide to launch an earlier, more limited version of the new model. The company had originally planned to launch Llama 4 Behemoth in April, in time for its first AI developer conference, but it later pushed the date back to June. Now, the timeline is much less certain, with the Journal indicating that Meta's AI engineering and research teams have serious concerns that the new model won't live up to earlier claims about its capabilities. This isn't the first time reports have surfaced about Meta's struggles with recent Llama models. The Information has also reported on problems at the company, and Meta itself has acknowledged submitting a specially optimized version of Llama to a leaderboard in April, rather than the publicly available version. One of the company's senior AI engineers, Ahmad Al-Dahle, admitted in a post on X last month that the company is hearing "reports of mixed quality across different services." The delay is embarrassing for Meta because the company has previously made some bold claims, saying that Llama 4 Behemoth outperforms the likes of GPT-4.5, Claude Sonnet 3.7 and Gemini 2.0 Pro on key benchmarks such as MATH-500 and GPQA Diamond, even while it's still being trained. That said, it seems Meta is not alone in its struggles. A similar situation appears to have arisen at OpenAI, which initially aimed to launch GPT-5 by the middle of this year, before ultimately releasing that model as GPT-4.5. The GPT-5 name has now been given to an upcoming "reasoning" model that's still in development. In February, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman stated that any major new breakthroughs are still months away. Another AI company, Anthropic PBC, delayed the release of its long-awaited Claude 3.5 Opus model, which has not yet been launched despite earlier claims it was "coming soon." Experts told the Journal that the apparent stumbles indicate that any advancements in AI are likely to come at a slower pace in future, and potentially cost much more in terms of investment. "The progress is quite small across all the labs, all the models," said Ravid Shwartz-Ziv, an assistant professor at New York University's Center for Data Science. Meta's struggles aren't helped by the fact that most of the researchers who helped to create the original Llama model that debuted in early 2023 are no longer with the company. The original Llama team consisted of 14 academics and researchers with doctorate degrees, but 11 of them have since left the company. More recent versions of Llama have been developed by an entirely different team, the Journal said.

Meta Is Delaying the Launch of Its 'Behemoth' AI Model, Report Says

Meta (META) is reportedly pushing back the launch of its "Behemoth" AI model amid concerns about whether enough improvements have been made compared to previous iterations. The Facebook parent had originally planned to roll out the new version of its Llama 4 large language model in April, in conjunction with its LlamaCon event for AI developers, The Wall Street Journal reported Thursday. The company has not offered a public timeline for the release. The delays have caused frustration with the Llama 4 development team among senior Meta executives, who are considering making management changes to its AI product group, the report said. Meta shares slid about 2% Thursday. They've added 10% in 2025 so far.

Meta Delays Release of Its 'Behemoth' AI Model: Report

Meta Platforms is delaying the release of its flagship "Behemoth" AI model due to concerns about its capabilities, the Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday, citing people familiar with the matter. Company engineers are struggling to significantly improve the capabilities of its Behemoth large-language model, resulting in staff questions about whether improvements over earlier versions are significant enough to justify public release, the report said. Early in its development, Behemoth was internally scheduled for release in April to coincide with Meta's inaugural AI conference for developers, but later pushed an internal target for the model's launch to June, according to the report. It has now been delayed to fall or later, the report said. The social media giant did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment. Meta had said in April it was previewing Llama 4 Behemoth, which it called "one of the smartest LLMs in the world and our most powerful yet to serve as a teacher for our new models". It released the latest version of its LLM Llama, called the Llama 4 Scout and Llama 4 Maverick, that month. © Thomson Reuters 2025

Report: Meta Delays Rollout of Behemoth AI Model Amid Performance Concerns | PYMNTS.com

Meta reportedly delayed the rollout of its flagship artificial intelligence model called Behemoth. The company internally planned to release Behemoth in April, later pushed the release date to June, and has now delayed the launch at least until fall, The Wall Street Journal reported Thursday (May 15), citing unnamed sources. The company has not publicly committed to a timeline for the product, the report said. Meta did not immediately reply to PYMNTS' request for comment. The launch delays have been caused by struggles to improve the AI model and by concerns that the model's performance won't live up to that promoted in public statements, according to the report. In public statements, Meta has said that Behemoth already outperforms similar models from Anthropic, Google and OpenAI on certain tests, per the report. When releasing the latest versions of its Llama AI model April 5, Meta said in a press release: "We're also previewing Llama 4 Behemoth, one of the smartest LLMs in the world and our most powerful yet to serve as a teacher for our new models." Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg said April 30 during a first-quarter earnings call that the company will increase its spending for AI data centers this year as it embeds the technology more deeply throughout its family of apps. The company plans to record $64 billion to $72 billion in capital expenditures, up from $60 billion to $65 billion, while striving to meet demand for computing resources. "The major theme right now, of course, is how AI is transforming everything we do," Zuckerberg said. "The opportunities ahead for us are staggering. To that end, we are accelerating some of our efforts to bring capacity online more quickly this year, as well as some longer-term projects that will give us flexibility to add capacity in the coming years." Meta's open-source AI models that were released April 5 -- Llama 4 Scout and Llama 4 Maverick -- are a shot across the bow to rivals' more expensive closed models and good news for businesses hoping to lower the cost of deploying AI, PYMNTS reported April 9.

Meta Delays 'Behemoth' AI Model; Business Impact May Be Muted | PYMNTS.com

Slower AI breakthroughs industrywide suggest scaling laws may be hitting limits. Meta reportedly is postponing the release of the largest version of its open-source Llama 4 artificial intelligence (AI) model from summer to fall at the earliest. Called "Behemoth," the multimodal model is not improving "significantly" enough to be released by June; it was already delayed from April, when Meta held LlamaCon, its first Llama developers conference. The delay looks to be the first hiccup from Meta on the release of its Llama flagship family of large language models, which have been praised for the speed of their release, according to The Wall Street Journal. As a powerful open-source model, Llama has given developers in smaller companies, nonprofit communities and academia a generally free AI model to use. It has been the counterweight to the closed, proprietary models developed by OpenAI, Google, Amazon and others. The impact on companies is more muted since many big companies go through the cloud giants, which mostly offer proprietary models. Smaller companies can customize the smaller open-source Llama models, but still need help to implement them since Meta -- as a social media giant -- is not in the business of offering deployment services. Meta is using Llama to power its own social media tools, so CEO Mark Zuckerberg can control his own AI destiny. The issue with Behemoth is whether the model shows enough advances to justify launching it publicly, according to the paper. In the tech industry, developers and users can quickly disparage new releases if they don't show enough advances to justify a public launch. At LlamaCon, Meta released two smaller sister Llama 4 models that are still large in certain aspects. Initially, Behemoth was set for release at the same time. It would have 2 trillion parameters. The Journal said Meta is getting impatient with its Llama 4 team as it continues to pour a fortune into AI investments. This year, the company has budgeted up to $72 billion in capital expenditures, much of which is earmarked for AI development in support of Zuckerberg's long-term vision. Read more: Meta Adds 'Multimodal' Models to Its Llama AI Stable Zuckerberg and other senior leaders have yet to disclose a public release date for Behemoth. While the model could still launch earlier than expected, possibly in a limited form, insiders are worried that its current performance may not live up to expectations set by company statements. Frustrations are reportedly mounting among Meta's leadership over the progress made by the team responsible for the Llama 4 models, which has struggled to deliver tangible gains on Behemoth. This has led the company to consider major leadership changes in its AI product group. Meta has publicly promoted Behemoth as a powerful system, claiming it surpasses offerings from OpenAI, Google and Anthropic on certain evaluations. Internally, however, training difficulties have hampered its effectiveness, people familiar with the development said. PYMNTS contacted Meta for comment but has yet to get a reply. OpenAI has also experienced delays. Its next major model, GPT-5, was originally anticipated for a mid-2024 release. Last December, the Journal noted that development had fallen behind schedule. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman later clarified in February that the interim model would be GPT-4.5, while GPT-5, expected to deliver larger advances, remained months away. Advances in AI model development could slow for several reasons. Among them: Running out of high-quality data Large language models require massive amounts of data to train on, such as the entire internet. But they may be running out of publicly available data to access, while copyrighted content carries legal risks. That is why OpenAI, Google and Microsoft are urging the Trump administration to preserve their right to train on copyrighted material. "The federal government can both secure Americans' freedom to learn from AI, and avoid forfeiting our AI lead to the PRC [People's Republic of China] by preserving American AI models' ability to learn from copyrighted material," according to OpenAI. Algorithmic limitations

Meta delays release of flagship 'Behemoth' AI model as engineers...

Mark Zuckerberg's Meta Platforms is delaying the release of its flagship "Behemoth" AI model due to concerns about its capabilities, the Wall Street Journal reported Thursday, citing people familiar with the matter. Company engineers are struggling to significantly improve the capabilities of its Behemoth large-language model, resulting in staff questions about whether improvements over earlier versions are significant enough to justify public release, the report said. Early in its development, Behemoth was internally scheduled for release in April to coincide with Meta's inaugural AI conference for developers, but later pushed an internal target for the model's launch to June, according to the report. It has now been delayed to fall or later, the report said. The social media giant did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment. Meta had said in April it was previewing Llama 4 Behemoth, which it called "one of the smartest LLMs in the world and our most powerful yet to serve as a teacher for our new models."