A year after Meta tapped Alexandr Wang to build a new AI model, Zuckerberg has to sell it

Meta has released its first proprietary AI model, Muse Spark, a year after CEO Mark Zuckerberg spent $14.3 billion to acquire Scale AI and hire Alexandr Wang and his team. The move marks a shift away from Meta’s open-source AI strategy, which had struggled to gain traction with developers, particularly after the underwhelming reception of Llama 4 in April 2025. Wang, now leading Meta Superintelligence Labs, designed Muse Spark to integrate directly into Meta’s core apps like Facebook and Instagram, as well as AI-powered devices such as Ray-Ban Meta glasses. The model also supports Meta’s standalone AI app, launched earlier this year to compete with ChatGPT. Despite the company’s 33% revenue growth in Q1 2026—the fastest expansion since 2021—Meta’s stock has dropped 18% over the past year, underperforming even Microsoft. Analysts attribute this to skepticism about Meta’s ability to monetize AI beyond boosting its advertising business. Ralph Schackart of William Blair noted that investors now demand proof of adoption and commercialization for AI products. The pivot to proprietary AI came after Meta’s open-source approach failed to captivate developers, leading to a strategic rethink. Zuckerberg’s decision to invest heavily in Wang and Scale AI reflects a bet on proprietary models to drive future growth. However, Meta must now demonstrate that Muse Spark can attract paying users or risk falling further behind competitors like OpenAI and Anthropic.