After investing billions of dollars, starting a ‘costly talent war’ in the tech industry, Mark Zuckerberg’s Meta may miss an AI deadline it set for itself

Meta’s next big AI model—codenamed Avocado—has been delayed by at least two months after falling short of rivals on internal benchmarks, the New York Times reported on Thursday. The model, which was originally targeted for a mid-March release, is now unlikely to ship before May, three people familiar with the matter told the publication. It’s a significant stumble for a company that’s poured billions into catching up in the foundational AI race—and one that raises questions about whether sheer spending can close the gap with Google, OpenAI, and Anthropic.

Avocado reportedly outperformed Meta’s previous Llama 4 model and edged past Google’s older Gemini 2.5, but couldn’t keep up with Gemini 3.0 from November.