Meta’s flagship AI model “Avocado” has been pushed back to May or later after internal tests showed it can’t match Google’s latest offerings, forcing the company to consider licensing its rival’s technology.
The delay from March to at least May comes despite Meta’s planned $115-135 billion investment in artificial intelligence this year, according to a New York Times report. Internal evaluations placed Avocado’s performance between Google’s Gemini 2.5 and Gemini 3 models, falling short of competitive benchmarks needed for a first-quarter launch.
Meta’s AI leadership has discussed temporarily licensing Google’s Gemini technology to power its products while Avocado development continues, Reuters reported.
No decisions have been reached, but the consideration marks a significant concession for a company that committed over $100 billion to achieve “superintelligence”, AI that surpasses human capabilities. The setback follows major internal restructuring at Meta’s AI division. Longtime Chief AI Scientist Yann LeCun departed earlier this year after clashing with new leadership over strategic direction.
Meta brought in Scale AI founder Alexandr Wang as Chief AI Officer in June 2025 through a $14.3 billion investment, signaling a shift toward proprietary models over open-source development.
Avocado was originally slated for December 2025 release before being pushed to March 2026, then delayed again to May or June. The model reportedly outperforms Meta’s previous AI systems and Google’s Gemini 2.5 but cannot compete with Gemini 3.0 or offerings from OpenAI and Anthropic.
“push the frontier in the next year or so.”
Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg said in July that his company’s new AI models would do just that. The repeated delays and potential licensing arrangement with Google suggest that timeline has slipped significantly despite unprecedented capital expenditure.
The company completed Avocado’s pre-training phase at the end of last year but continues refining the model for commercial release. Meta faces increasing pressure to generate revenue from its AI investments, with Avocado expected to launch as a paid, proprietary product rather than following the company’s traditional open-source approach.
