Meta's Llama AI Models Reach 1 Billion Downloads, Marking Significant Growth in Open-Source AI

Mark Zuckerberg says that Meta's Llama models have hit 1B downloads

In a brief message Tuesday morning on Threads, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg said the company's "open" AI model family, Llama, hit 1 billion downloads. That's up from 650 million downloads as of early December 2024 -- a 153% increase over a roughly-three-month period. Llama, which powers Meta's AI assistant across its various platforms, including Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp, is Meta's bid to foster a wide-ranging AI product ecosystem. The company makes the models and tools required to fine-tune and customize them available for free under a proprietary license. Some developers and companies have taken issue with the Llama license terms, which are somewhat restrictive. Yet Llama has achieved widespread success in spite of this. Companies including Spotify use Llama models in production today. That's not to suggest that Meta hasn't faced setbacks. Llama is at the center of an AI copyright lawsuit that accuses Meta of training a number of Llama models on copyrighted ebooks without authorization, and Llama's performance has been leapfrogged by models like Chinese AI lab's DeepSeek.

Meta's Llama Hits 1 Billion Downloads, Doubling Growth in Three Months

In October last year, Mark Zuckerberg also confirmed that Meta is releasing Llama 4 early 2025. Meta's open source AI model family, Llama, has surpassed 1 billion downloads, CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced on Threads. This milestone marks a sharp rise from 650 million downloads in December 2024 -- a 153% surge in just three months. First introduced for researchers, Llama has since expanded its reach to developers and AI enthusiasts worldwide. Ahmad Al-Dahle, VP, head of GenAI at Meta, posted on LinkedIn about the achievement saying that in the span of two years, Llama went from a research project to the most widely used open source AI model. "I'm so proud of my team for working tirelessly to make Llama better everyday. Meta's GenAI org actually turned 2 years old on February 27th and it has been so inspiring and humbling to see them work so hard to improve Llama in such real ways for developers, startups and enterprises around the world," Dahle said. He added that this moment is a celebration of the entire open source AI community. "Each Llama download represents a vote of confidence in open source AI - and a shared belief that we can go so much further building together," he added. Meta is gearing up to release multiple Llama models in the coming months, including "reasoning" models similar to OpenAI's o3-mini and versions with built-in multimodal capabilities. Zuckerberg has also hinted at "agentic" features, indicating that some models may have the ability to operate autonomously. In October last year, Zuckerberg also confirmed AIM's prediction of the company releasing Llama 4 early 2025 at its third quarterly earnings call. "I expect that the smaller Llama 4 models will be ready first, and we expect [them] sometime early next year, and I think that they're going to be a big deal on several fronts -- new modalities, capabilities, stronger reasoning, and much faster," Zuckerberg said. The Llama 3 models marked a major turning point in the industry, but Zuckerberg expressed even greater enthusiasm for Llama 4, which he confirmed is well into development. "We're training the Llama 4 models on a cluster that is bigger than 100k H100s or bigger than anything that I've seen reported for what others are doing," he said. Llama powers Meta AI across Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp, and is a key part of the company's long-term AI strategy.

Mark Zuckerberg Announces That Meta's Llama Model Hits 1 Billion Downloads. 'Each Llama Download Represents A Vote Of Confidence In Open Source AI', Says VP - Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META), DoorDash (NASDAQ:DASH)

Meta Platforms Inc. META CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced that the company's AI model family, 'Llama', has reached a milestone of 1 billion downloads. What Happened: Zuckerberg announced on Threads on Tuesday as he posted a meme stating 'Me finding out Llama hit 1 Billion downloads'. The increase indicates nearly a 54% surge from the 650 million downloads recorded in early December 2024. Llama, the AI that powers Meta's AI assistant across various platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp, is a crucial component of Meta's broader AI product ecosystem strategy. Despite certain commercial restrictions in its license terms that have sparked concerns among developers, Llama has seen extensive adoption since its 2023 launch. Major companies like Spotify Technology SA SPOT, AT&T Inc. T, and DoorDash Inc. DASH are currently utilizing Llama models in their operations. Ahmad Al-Dahle, VP and Head of GenAI at Meta posted about the achievement on LinkedIn. "Each Llama download represents a vote of confidence in open source AI - and a shared belief that we can go so much further building together," said Al-Dahle. SEE ALSO: Arista Analyst Sees 68% Upside As Stock Pullback Presents Buying Opportunity Why It Matters: In January, Zuckerberg revealed ambitious plans for Llama 4, the next-generation open-source artificial intelligence model. The announcement came during Meta's fourth-quarter earnings call, highlighting the industry's shift toward more autonomous AI systems. Zuckerberg also ensured that the Llama investment cycle will continue, with expectations for internal operational improvement, early wins on the consumer-facing side, and with advertisers. That being said, Llama's journey has faced obstacles. It's currently embroiled in an AI copyright lawsuit accusing Meta of using copyrighted e-books for model training without permission. Furthermore, data privacy issues have compelled Meta to postpone or cancel Llama's launch in several EU countries. Despite this, Meta plans to launch new Llama models with reasoning, multimodal capabilities, and 'agentic' features in the coming months. Meta stock lost 3.73% to close at $582.36 on Tuesday. The stock surged 17.35% over the past year, as per Benzinga Pro. READ MORE: Meta Could Rake In $30-40 Billion In Revenue From WhatsApp Business Messaging, Predicts Analyst Image via Shutterstock Disclaimer: This content was partially produced with the help of AI tools and was reviewed and published by Benzinga editors. DASHDoorDash Inc $185.17-0.02% Stock Score Locked: Want to See it? Benzinga Rankings give you vital metrics on any stock - anytime. Reveal Full Score Edge Rankings Momentum93.04 Growth18.04 Quality- Value5.77 Price Trend Short Medium Long Overview METAMeta Platforms Inc $582.27-0.02% SPOTSpotify Technology SA $571.360.33% TAT&T Inc $26.60-0.04% Market News and Data brought to you by Benzinga APIs