December 11, 2025 – Meta is undergoing a pivotal strategic transformation. According to sources familiar with the matter cited by Bloomberg, after months of building a high – cost AI team, Mark Zuckerberg has started to get personally involved in the day – to – day research and development. He is driving the company to shift from an open – source model to a closed – source one that can directly generate revenue.
The core project, codenamed “Avocado,” is expected to make its debut in the spring of next year. In a stark contrast to Meta’s previous commitment to open – source, this new model is likely to be released in a closed – source format. Meta will have full control over it and sell access rights to external parties.
This move aligns with the business strategies of Google and OpenAI, and also marks a significant break from Meta’s long – standing emphasis on “openness.” Sources reveal that the newly appointed Chief AI Officer, Alexandr Wang, is a staunch advocate of the closed – source model.
Meta’s pivot stems from setbacks earlier this year. After the release of its open – source model Llama 4, the results fell short of expectations, causing disappointment in Silicon Valley and among Zuckerberg himself. Subsequently, he made adjustments to the research and development team and reorganized the project leaders. At the same time, he recruited top – tier AI researchers from around the world with lucrative multi – year compensation packages. Some of these talents joined the team through investment relationships worth $14.3 billion. Currently, Zuckerberg is devoting a great deal of time to the group “TBD Lab,” where these new members are based, to advance the development of the new model.
In terms of technical approach, TBD Lab is incorporating multiple third – party models into its training process. Sources say that the lab is extracting capabilities from models such as Google’s Gemma, OpenAI’s gpt – oss, and Alibaba’s Qwen for the distillation training of Avocado.
