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Meta Releases Proprietary AI Model Muse Spark After Heavy Investments
Meta Platforms unveiled its new proprietary AI model, Muse Spark, on Wednesday, marking a shift from open-source Llama models. The release follows nearly 10 months after hiring Scale AI CEO Alexandr Wang for over $14 billion and amid plans for $115 billion to $135 billion in 2025 capital expenditures.
Apr 9, 8:27 AM·2m read2 sources
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Meta Platforms released its new AI model, Muse Spark, on Wednesday. The proprietary model represents a departure from the company's previous open-source Llama family. Meta plans to offer paid API access to third parties after an initial private preview with select partners.
The release comes almost 10 months after Meta acquired Scale AI CEO Alexandr Wang and key team members for more than $14 billion in June. This hiring led to the creation of Meta Superintelligence Labs. In January, Meta announced capital expenditure plans of $115 billion to $135 billion for 2025, nearly double the 2024 figure.
Meta's AI investments have focused on improving advertising capabilities, which generated $200 billion in revenue last year, accounting for 98% of total income. Analysts note that Muse Spark excels in image and video processing benchmarks compared to rivals like Claude and Gemini.
These strengths align with Meta's platforms, including Facebook, Instagram, and Reels, which reach over 3 billion monthly users.
The move to proprietary models follows the April release of Llama 4, which did not attract significant developer interest.
Gartner analyst Arun Chandrasekaran described the change as a major shift signaling an intention to move away from the Llama brand. Meta aims to compete with OpenAI, Anthropic, and Google, whose models have driven valuations exceeding $1 trillion collectively.
“— Morningstar analyst Malik Ahmed Khan, interview (CNBC)”
Developers have favored open-weight models for fine-tuning, a practice less feasible with proprietary offerings. Joseph Ott, CEO of Samu Legal Technologies, stated uncertainty about Muse Spark's value without such customization options. Ulrik Stig Hansen, co-founder of Encord, emphasized the importance of Meta developing its own foundation models to maintain AI sovereignty.
