Meta Finds a New Way to Spend a Fortune on AI

The AI laggards are going on the offensive! Meta Platforms on Thursday unveiled its latest AI model, Muse Spark 1.1, a day after SpaceX’s AI unit introduced a new model of its own. Like SpaceX, Meta claimed its new model delivers performance comparable to that of established models from AI labs such as OpenAI, Anthropic and Google. We’ll have to wait a few days to see whether developers agree. (Meanwhile, OpenAI unveiled its latest models, GPT 5.6).

What may be most significant, however, is Meta’s apparent intention to spend a fortune subsidizing usage of its new model in hopes of pulling market share from its rivals. In an interview with Bloomberg, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg said Meta’s pricing for what users would pay to use the models would be “very aggressive and attractive.” Bloomberg’s report said Meta’s prices would be about a quarter of those advertised by top models from Anthropic and OpenAI—in other words, dirt cheap.