Meta is launching a brand new program to incentivize startups to undertake its Llama AI fashions.
This system, Llama for Startups, offers corporations “direct help” from Meta’s Llama group, in addition to funding in sure instances. Any U.S.-based agency that’s integrated, has raised lower than $10 million in funding, has no less than one developer on workers, and is constructing generative AI functions is eligible to use by the Could 30 deadline.
“Members could obtain as much as $6,000 per thirty days for as much as six months to assist them offset the prices of constructing and enhancing their generative AI options,” Meta wrote in a weblog put up. “Our consultants will work carefully with them to get began and discover superior use instances of Llama that might profit their startups.”
The launch of the Llama startup program comes as Meta tries to cement its lead within the fiercely aggressive open mannequin house. Whereas the tech large’s Llama fashions have racked up greater than a billion downloads thus far, rivals reminiscent of DeepSeek, Google, and Alibaba’s Qwen threaten to upend Meta’s efforts to ascertain a far-reaching mannequin ecosystem.
Not serving to issues, Llama has suffered a number of setbacks over the previous few months.
The Wall Avenue Journal final week reported Meta has delayed the rollout of a flagship AI mannequin, Llama 4 Behemoth, over considerations the mannequin underperforms on key benchmarks. In April, Meta needed to fend off allegations that it cheated on a well-liked crowdsourced AI benchmark, LM Enviornment. The corporate used a model of its Llama 4 Maverick mannequin “optimized for conversationality” to realize a excessive rating on LM Enviornment, however launched a totally different model of Maverick publicly.
Meta has big ambitions for Llama — and its broader generative AI portfolio. Final yr, the corporate made a prediction its generative AI merchandise would rake in $2 billion to $3 billion in income in 2025, and between $460 billion and $1.4 trillion by 2035.
Meta has revenue-sharing agreements with some corporations that host its Llama fashions. The corporate just lately launched an API for customizing Llama releases. And Meta AI, the corporate’s AI assistant powered by Llama, could finally present adverts and provide a subscription with further options, CEO Mark Zuckerberg stated throughout the firm’s Q1 earnings name.
These merchandise have confirmed pricey to construct. In 2024, Meta’s “GenAI” funds was greater than $900 million, and this yr, it might exceed $1 billion. That’s not together with the infrastructure wanted to run and practice the fashions. Meta beforehand stated it plans to spend $60 billion to $80 billion on capital expenditures in 2025, totally on new knowledge facilities.
