Sources: Meta's new superintelligence lab led by Alexandr Wang discussed abandoning its top open-source model, Behemoth, in favor of developing a closed model
that may be changing Robert Brown / implicator.ai : From Altruism to Arms Race: Meta's AI Strategy Takes a Closed Turn Bluesky: M.G. Siegler / @mgsiegler.com : Yeah... (from a couple weeks back) [embedded post] X: Kylie Robison / @kyliebytes : who on earth could have guessed it (everyone) Harlan Stewart / @humanharlan : So you're telling me the billions they spend trying to build godlike AI is NOT because they love fairness and want to give everyone their own god for free???? Damn. You think you know someone. https://www.nytimes.com/... [image] Gary Marcus / @garymarcus : in hindsight meta's open-source (really just open-weights) just was probably a tactic to recruit people. didn't work. they lost ground, anyway. so to hell with that. they are back to closed. Shane Gu / @shaneguml : RIP to the unicorn AI startups that have zero products, zero foundation models, and were just going to depend on big labs releasing open-source models for free to model merge. I know one or two. [image] Bindu Reddy / @bindureddy : The new ultra-rich crew are considering abandoning open-source at Meta 🥲 They are already nowhere on the map and abandoning open source will lose them the few fans they have 🤷♀️ Disappointing [image] Rohan Paul / @rohanpaul_ai : It had to happen. After all, these are financed by a humongous amount of money. Meta's top lab members, including Alexandr Wang, mulled dropping Behemoth, the company's premier open model, for a closed version “We're obviously very pro open source, but I haven't committed to [image] Miles Brundage / @miles_brundage : Google maybe on track to outlast everyone in open sourcing LMs (small ones at least) @modestproposal1 : Zuck on Dwarkesh in April: “So you're seeing a bunch of other players start to do some work in open source. But it's unclear if it's dabbling, or fundamental for them the way that it has been for us.” [image] Ethan Mollick / @emollick : There are lots of very good small models being released out of the US (Phi, Gemma) but those are not frontier large models. Ethan Mollick / @emollick : And with this, the US is mostly out of the frontier open source large LLM race. Europe has one contender, otherwise it is all China now. (OpenAI is going to release an open LLM soon, but no commitment yet to that being an ongoing effort). [image] Eli Tan / @elitanjourno : SCOOP: Top members of Meta's new Superintelligence team, including Alex Wang, want to create a new, closed model and abandon Behemoth, the delayed open source Llama model. The new team of highly paid researchers met this week in an office space siloed from the rest of the [image] Facebook: Mark Zuckerberg : For our superintelligence effort, I'm focused on building the most elite and talent-dense team in the industry. … Forums: r/LocalLLaMA : Meta's New Superintelligence Lab Is Discussing Major A.I. Strategy Changes BeauHD / Slashdot : Meta's Superintelligence Lab Considers Shift To Closed AI Model See also Mediagazer
Context & Ripple Effects
Meta had framed open sourcing as both a competitive strategy and an alternative to dependence on closed-model vendors; its earlier strategy explicitly aimed to push down rivals’ prices by broadening access to Meta’s technology. The reported discussion therefore puts a possible break with that positioning at the center of its frontier-model effort.
The timing also follows Meta’s intensive examination of DeepSeek’s development approach, including internal war rooms focused on its training-cost methods. That makes the Behemoth deliberation relevant not just as a product decision, but as a reassessment of how Meta competes at the model frontier.
First-order effects
- Meta’s superintelligence group may redirect work from Behemoth, its top open-source model, toward a closed successor; no final abandonment is reported.
- Developers and businesses expecting Meta’s next flagship model to be openly available face greater uncertainty over access, deployment control, and the ability to build on its weights.
Second-order effects
- A closed Meta model would place Meta more directly in competition for proprietary-model customers, while reducing one source of price and capability pressure on closed-model providers.
- The move would also test Meta’s long-standing argument that broadly released models are strategically advantageous, after its public case for open source as the path forward.
Third-order effects
- If major labs reserve their strongest models, open-weight releases could increasingly serve as lower-tier ecosystem products rather than the primary vehicle for frontier competition.
- The underlying contest would shift further toward control of training, distribution, and model access—an outcome that could concentrate leverage among companies able to fund and operate frontier systems.
The trend: Meta’s reported deliberation is part of a broader pull between open-model ecosystem building and the commercial and strategic incentives to control frontier AI access.