Meta reportedly may license Google’s Gemini after Avocado underperforms

The immediate story

Meta is facing an unexpected stall in its race for next‑generation AI. It has been reported that internal tests of Meta’s unreleased model, codenamed “Avocado,” fell short of competitors, prompting the company to delay its public launch and even consider temporarily licensing Google’s Gemini to power its products. Reportedly the release has been pushed at least until May, according to a New York Times report citing people familiar with the matter.

What led here

Since releasing Llama 3 in 2024, Meta has not produced a clear leader in large AI models. The company did ship two lightweight Llama 4 variants intended for efficient use on limited hardware, and had talked of a much larger “Behemoth” model — but no follow‑up has appeared. Meanwhile, Google’s Gemini, OpenAI’s GPT family and Anthropic’s Claude have advanced rapidly, leaving Meta’s public model road map looking thin. A Meta spokesperson told reporters: “Our next model will perform well, and importantly, it will show we are on a steep upward trajectory. We will continue to ship models this year.”

Stakes and context

This is an awkward moment for Mark Zuckerberg, who has poured billions into a Superintelligence Labs effort and outlined aggressive ambitions — including up to $135 billion in capital spending this year, much of it for compute infrastructure. Why does this matter beyond corporate pride? Leading AI models are becoming strategic infrastructure: they power products, ad targeting, and new consumer devices. If Meta must rely on a rival’s model, it would underscore Google’s comeback and reshape competitive dynamics among U.S. tech giants.

Broader implications

Of course, model leadership is not the whole story. Meta continues to extract value through AI‑driven ads, custom chips for recommendation systems and progress in smart glasses. But Zuckerberg’s longer‑term vision — a self‑developed “personal superintelligence” that could challenge the iPhone as people’s primary computing device — depends on producing a truly dominant model. Will Avocado ever get there? For now, it has been reported that Meta’s timetable and strategy will remain under close scrutiny.