In order to encourage entrepreneurs to use its Llama AI models, Meta is introducing a new initiative.
Through the Llama for Startups program, businesses can receive cash in some circumstances in addition to “direct support” from Meta’s Llama team. Applications are due on May 30 from any U.S.-based company that is incorporated, has raised less than $10 million in investment, employs at least one developer, and is developing generative AI applications.
In a blog post, Meta stated that members might get up to $6,000 a month for a maximum of six months to assist defray the expenses of developing and improving their generative AI solutions. “To get started and investigate advanced use cases of Llama that could benefit their startups, our experts will work closely with them.”
The Llama startup program was launched as Meta attempts to solidify its position as the industry leader in the very competitive open model field. Even though the tech giant’s Llama models have been downloaded over a billion times so far, competitors like DeepSeek, Google, and Alibaba’s Qwen pose a challenge to Meta’s attempts to create a comprehensive model ecosystem.
Llama has had a number of setbacks in recent months, which hasn’t helped.
Last week, the Wall Street Journal revealed that Meta has postponed the release of its flagship AI model, Llama 4 Behemoth, due to worries that it would perform poorly on important benchmarks. Meta had to defend itself against claims that it had cheated on LM Arena, a well-known crowdsourced AI benchmark, in April. To get a high score on LM Arena, the business employed a version of their Llama 4 Maverick model that was “optimized for conversationality.” However, it publicly distributed a different version of Maverick.
Llama and its larger generative AI portfolio are the focus of Meta’s lofty goals. According to the company’s forecast last year, its generative AI solutions would generate between $2 billion and $3 billion in 2025 and $460 billion to $1.4 trillion by 2035.
With certain businesses that host their Llama models, Meta has revenue-sharing arrangements. An API for personalizing Llama releases was just released by the firm. Additionally, CEO Mark Zuckerberg stated during the company’s Q1 earnings call that Meta AI, the AI assistant powered by Llama, may ultimately display advertisements and provide a subscription with extra capabilities.
Building these things has proven to be expensive. Meta’s “GenAI” budget was above $900 million in 2024 and may surpass $1 billion this year. The infrastructure required to operate and train the models is not included in that. In the past, Meta stated that it would invest between $60 billion and $80 billion in capital projects in 2025, mostly for new data centers.