Tech giant Meta Platforms (META) is reportedly thinking about pulling back from its own Llama language models in favor of models from rivals like OpenAI and Anthropic, according to The New York Times. This would be a big shift in strategy, since Meta’s Llama models are open-source, meaning others can use and modify them, while OpenAI and Anthropic use “closed” models that aren’t open to the public. So far, no final decision has been made.
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This possible change comes after the rocky launch of Meta’s Llama 4 models in April. Indeed, Meta introduced the models during its LlamaCon event, but they didn’t perform as well as competing AI models, and many developers left the event unimpressed. Since then, Meta has been spending heavily to catch up. Earlier this month, it announced a $14.3 billion investment to buy nearly half of Scale AI. As part of that deal, Scale’s CEO Alexandr Wang will join Meta to lead its “superintelligence” team, which is focused on creating artificial general intelligence.
Meta is also making bold moves to attract top AI talent. Reports say that the company is offering massive signing bonuses—up to $100 million—to hire researchers from OpenAI. On top of that, Meta is in talks to buy PlayAI, which is a startup that creates realistic AI voices. The company had even looked into acquiring other AI firms like Perplexity AI, Runway AI, and FuriosaAI before choosing to invest in Scale. Altogether, these efforts show how serious Meta is about becoming a leader in the AI space under CEO Mark Zuckerberg.
Is Meta a Buy, Sell, or Hold?
Turning to Wall Street, analysts have a Strong Buy consensus rating on META stock based on 42 Buys, three Holds, and one Sell assigned in the past three months, as indicated by the graphic below. Furthermore, the average META price target of $716.48 per share implies that shares are near fair value.
