Meta spent years presenting itself as the benevolent giant of open artificial intelligence, sprinkling Llama models across the internet as a counterweight to more tightly controlled rivals. Now the company is quietly reversing course, building a paid, closed system that could lock developers, advertisers, and even regulators into its orbit. If that shift holds, Meta’s move away from openness may be less a retreat than a calculated bid to dominate the next era of AI infrastructure.
I see a pattern emerging that is bigger than a single product decision. From new proprietary models and nuclear-powered data centers to fully automated ad creation, Meta is assembling a vertically integrated AI machine that only really works if it is closed, centralised, and controlled from Menlo Park.
From open-source champion to paywalled gatekeeper
Meta built its recent AI reputation on the idea that open models would keep the field competitive, with Mark Zuc repeatedly positioning Llama as a public good. That narrative is now colliding with reality. The company is developing a new AI model it intends to sell access to, abandoning the open-source strategy that previously defined its pitch to researchers and startups, according to reporting on Meta. The shift means that, instead of downloading weights and running them on their own hardware, customers will increasingly have to rent Meta’s intelligence on Meta’s terms.
That change is not a tweak, it is a structural reorientation. Analysis of Meta’s Strategic Pivot describes a fundamental move From Open Source to a Closed AI Model, explicitly framed as a way to compete with rivals like OpenAI and Alphabet. In other words, Meta is no longer trying to win hearts and minds by being the friendliest lab in town. It is trying to win by owning the pipes, the models, and the monetisation stack, even if that means walking back years of open rhetoric.
Investors see the upside, and the risk
On paper, a closed system should be exactly what Wall Street wants. A proprietary model that sits behind an API can be priced, tiered, and bundled into every corner of Meta’s products, from WhatsApp business tools to Instagram shopping. Yet early reaction has been cautious. Coverage of Meta Platforms’ deliberations over closed AI notes that Meta Platforms’ (META) stock dipped slightly after reports that the company was considering this move, with some asking What Does That and Why Don META Stock Investors Like It. The hesitation reflects a basic tension: closing the system could boost margins, but it also risks regulatory scrutiny and developer backlash.
At the same time, Meta’s core business is still throwing off the cash that makes this gamble possible. One analysis of Dec results notes that revenue was helped by improvements in advertising, with impressions increasing by 14% from a year earlier and expectations that this trend will continue in 2025 and in future years. That kind of growth gives Meta room to invest heavily in AI infrastructure while absorbing short term market jitters about strategy. The company is effectively asking investors to trade a bit of near term uncertainty for the prospect of long term platform control.
AI as the engine of a post-human ad economy
The clearest expression of Meta’s closed AI ambitions is in advertising, where the company is racing to automate not just targeting but the creative work itself. Mark Zuckerberg has already signalled that by the end of 2026, his company plans to use AI to work with brands to create their own advertising, including imagery and video, across its platforms, according to reporting on By the end of that period. Separate commentary on Meta’s marketing strategy notes that Zuckerberg says that by 2026, all ads on Meta could be generated with AI, a prospect that one strategist described as a step toward a post-human ad economy. In that world, the creative pipeline is no longer a messy ecosystem of agencies, freelancers, and in-house teams. It is a button inside Meta’s ad manager.
For Meta, a closed AI model is the logical backbone of that system. If every brand from Nike to a local coffee shop can spin up thousands of personalised video spots with a few prompts, the value lies in Meta’s proprietary models, its data, and its distribution. Letting those models roam freely as open-source downloads would undercut the company’s ability to charge for premium tools and to keep the most effective ad-generation techniques inside its own walls. The more Meta leans into fully automated campaigns, the more incentive it has to keep the underlying intelligence locked down.
Building an AI empire from chips to nuclear power
Closing the model is only half the story. Meta is also racing to control the physical infrastructure that will run its AI, a move that further tilts the playing field in its favour. Mark Zuckerberg has said that Meta will build “hundreds of gigawatts” of AI capacity over time, a staggering figure that underscores how central he expects these systems to be to the company’s future, according to Mark Zuckerberg. That kind of buildout is not just about keeping up with OpenAI or Alphabet. It is about ensuring that Meta’s own closed models never have to wait in line for compute.
Energy is the choke point for that ambition, and Meta is already moving to secure it. Recent analysis of the company’s infrastructure plans describes how Meta Plays the Long Game as Nuclear Power Anchors, with the company looking to ensure that its growth is not capped by utility shortages. If Meta can lock in dedicated nuclear-backed power for its data centers, it gains a structural advantage over smaller rivals that must compete for grid capacity. In a closed AI regime, that means Meta does not just own the model and the API, it owns the energy that makes them possible.
Inside Meta, AI is becoming mandatory
Externally, Meta is pitching AI as a service. Internally, it is turning AI into a requirement. In a recent discussion, Mark Zuckerberg talked about how Meta will be forcing employees to use AI in 2026, raising the question of how a company can credibly sell a product that is supposed to “change the world” when even its own staff might be reluctant to adopt it, as highlighted in a Nov interview. Mandating internal use is a classic platform play: the more Meta’s workforce relies on its own tools, the more feedback, data, and institutional knowledge those tools accumulate.
That internal pressure dovetails with the company’s external roadmap. Earlier in its AI push, Meta Targets April Launch for Llama 4 Despite AI Performance Hurdles, signalling that it was willing to ship aggressively even when the technology was not perfect, according to reporting on Meta Targets April. Now, as Meta pivots to a closed model, that same bias toward speed and scale is being applied to its own employees and its advertiser base. The message is clear: AI is not optional inside Meta’s ecosystem, it is the default.
Put together, these moves amount to a ruthless kind of clarity. Meta is walking away from the goodwill of open-source advocates in order to build a tightly controlled AI stack that runs on its own nuclear-backed data centers, powers a post-human ad economy, and is mandatory for the people who work there. The company is betting that, in the long run, control will matter more than charm. If it is right, the era of open AI may be remembered as a brief interlude before the platforms pulled the doors shut.
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