Meta is preparing to release the first new AI models developed under Alexandr Wang, the Scale AI founder who joined last year as part of a $15 billion deal, with plans to eventually offer versions via open source license, though its largest models will remain proprietary in a shift toward a hybrid strategy. Wang’s vision positions Meta as the consumer-focused alternative to OpenAI and Anthropic, which he sees as increasingly oriented toward governments and enterprise, with Meta’s advantage being its ability to distribute AI broadly through WhatsApp, Facebook, and Instagram at global scale. The approach is being read as a hedge: open enough to win developer mindshare and shape the ecosystem, but closed where Meta believes its biggest models give it a competitive edge, mirroring Alibaba’s recent decision to keep its most powerful Qwen models proprietary after years of open sourcing everything.
