Meta launches program to encourage startups to use its Llama AI models
Meta is launching a new program to encourage startups to take on his LLAMA AI models.
The program, Lama for startupsoffers companies “direct support” of the LLA team of Meta, as well as financing in certain cases. Every company established in the US has collected less than $ 10 million in financing, has at least one developer in staff and builds generative AI applications eligible for the deadline of 30 May.
“Members can receive a maximum of six months to $ 6,000 a month to help them compensate for the costs of building and improve their generative AI solutions,” Meta wrote in a Blog post. “Our experts will work closely with them to get started and explore advanced usage cases of Llama who can benefit their startups.”
The launch of the LLAMA Startup program comes when Meta tries to strengthen the lead in the brightly competing open model space. Although the LLA models of the Tech Giant have achieved more than a billion downloads so far, rivals such as Deepseek, Google and Alibaba’s Qwen are in danger of meta’s efforts to set up a far-reaching model ecosystem.
Llama has no business and has had several setbacks in recent months.
The Wall Street Journal last week reported Meta has delayed the rollout of a flagship AI model, Llama 4 Behemoth, about the concern of the model reached on important benchmarks. In April, Meta had to defend the allegations that it was a popular crowdsourced AI benchmark, LM Arena cheated on. The company used a version of the Lama 4 Maverick model “Optimized for Conversationality” to achieve a high score on LM Arena, but publicly released another version of Maverick.
Meta has enormous ambitions for Llama – and the wider generative AI portfolio. Last yearThe company made a prediction that its generative AI products in 2025 would earn $ 2 billion in 2025 to $ 3 billion, and between $ 460 billion and $ 1.4 trillion by 2035.
Meta has similarities for sharing income with some companies that organize its LLAMA models. The company recently launched an API for adjusting Lama releases. And Meta AI, the AI assistant of the company powered by Lama, can ultimately show advertisements and offer a subscription with extra functions, CEO Mark Zuckerberg said During the income call from the company Q1.
These products have proved to be expensive to build. In 2024Meta’s “Genai” budget was more than $ 900 million, and this year it could exceed $ 1 billion. That does not include the infrastructure that is needed to run and train the models. Meta said earlier that it is planning to spend $ 60 billion up to $ 80 billion in capital expenditures in 2025, mainly on new data centers.
