While Zuckerberg has some internal support for pushing the GenAI group to rapidly develop real-world products, there's also concern among some staffers that Meta is now less able to develop industry-leading breakthroughs that can be derived from experimental work, former employees said. That leaves Meta to chase its rivals.

A high-profile example landed in January, when Chinese lab DeepSeek released its R1 model, catching Meta off guard. The startup claimed it was able to develop a model as capable as its American counterparts but with training at a fraction of the cost.