This article first appeared on GuruFocus.
Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) shares slipped 2% on Friday morning after a report said the company’s latest artificial intelligence model has not matched the performance of rival systems.
The New York Times reported that Meta’s new foundational AI model, code-named Avocado, lagged leading models from Alphabet’s Google (NASDAQ:GOOGL), as well as systems developed by OpenAI and Anthropic, in internal testing for reasoning, coding, and writing capabilities.
People familiar with the matter said the model performed better than Meta’s earlier AI system and also surpassed Google’s Gemini 2.5 model released in March. However, it did not match the capabilities of Gemini 3.0, which was introduced in November, the report said.
As a result, Meta has delayed the release of the Avocado model to at least May, rather than launching it this month. Executives within the company’s AI division have also discussed the possibility of temporarily licensing Google’s Gemini technology to support some of Meta’s AI products, though no final decision has been made.
Meta has been investing heavily in artificial intelligence infrastructure, hiring researchers and committing large sums toward data-center expansion to support the development of advanced AI systems.
