On August 19, 2026, Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Meta, made a major announcement regarding the company's strategic direction for the coming years. At the center of his focus is the race to create "superintelligence," a theoretical stage of artificial intelligence development where its capabilities will surpass human ones. Zuckerberg emphasized that the US must actively compete with China in this field to prevent the risk of excessive state control over AI and ensure the accessibility of advanced technologies for every individual.
Open Weighted Models as a Response to Closed Systems
One of the key directions of Meta's strategy is the development of "open weighted" models. Unlike fully open-source software, these models do not publish the entire source code, but allow users to download the parameters that determine the system's operation. This approach distinguishes Meta from major competitors — OpenAI and Anthropic — which focus on closed AI models. Zuckerberg believes that concentrating superintelligence in the hands of a few corporations or governments could lead to a dangerous centralization of power.
The New Glimmer Model and Infrastructure Investments
As part of his vision, Zuckerberg introduced a new open weighted model, Glimmer, partially developed based on the closed model Muse Spark, launched by Meta in April 2026. According to the company, Glimmer consumes significantly less computing power than many other models, yet is powerful enough to run "AI agents" — software products capable of performing tasks autonomously without constant human intervention. To realize these ambitions, Meta plans to spend up to $145 billion in 2026, which is almost double the amount spent in 2025.
Pressure from Chinese Developers
American technology companies are facing growing pressure from Chinese developers such as Alibaba, DeepSeek, and Moonshot. In recent months, they have consistently introduced advanced open models at lower prices, forcing American companies to lower prices and develop more cost-effective solutions. Zuckerberg warned that even a delay of one month could create significant risks for the US leading position, while foreign models continue to gain momentum.
Contradictory Data
There are differences in assessments of how effectively Meta will be able to compete with Chinese developers. On the one hand, the company is investing huge funds in infrastructure and AI technologies, which should give it an advantage. On the other hand, Chinese companies demonstrate a high speed of implementing new models and lower prices, which could become a serious challenge for American developers. Furthermore, there are questions about how successfully Meta will be able to implement its strategy of open weighted models in conditions of fierce competition.
Call for a Flexible Legal Environment
Zuckerberg called on Washington to create a flexible legal environment for open AI models. According to him, in such a rapidly changing field as AI, active cooperation between the government and leading laboratories would be more effective than applying a rigid evaluation process in each case. "Our goal should be to make American open-source models the best in the world. To do this, it is necessary to eliminate barriers that hinder competition for American open-source models," he emphasized.
