$Meta Platforms (META.US)$ CEO Mark Zuckerberg on Wednesday said that his company's $405 billion model, Llama 3.1, has "better cost performance" compared to leading closed models, possibly referring to OpenAI's ChatGPT.

What Happened: During Meta's second-quarter earnings call, Zuckerberg stated, "I think we are going to look back at Llama 3.1 as an inflection point in the industry where open-source AI started to become the industry standard, just like Linux is."

He went on to explain his bullish stance on open source, stating it enables faster innovation, creates shared prosperity, and is safer. "My view is that Open Source will be safer, will enable innovation that improves all of our lives faster, and we'll also create more shared prosperity."

Zuckerberg also highlighted Meta's successful track record with open source, citing billions of dollars saved through the open compute project and real benefits derived from open-sourcing tools like PyTorch and React.

The Meta CEO also revealed that work has already begun on Llama 4, which is expected to be the most advanced model in the industry next year.

"The amount of compute needed to train Llama 4 will likely be almost 10 times more than what we used to train Llama 3, and future models will continue to grow beyond that," he stated.

Why It Matters: Earlier this month, during a fireside chat at SIGGRAPH 2024, Zuckerberg expressed his frustration with closed platforms.

He said, "There have just been too many things I've tried to build and told 'nah, you can't really build that' by the platform provider, that at some level I'm just like, 'Nah, f*** that.'"

His stance on open-source AI models was supported by $Tesla (TSLA.US)$ CEO and xAI founder Elon Musk, who publicly expressed his agreement with Zuckerberg's views.

Previously, Zuckerberg also acknowledged the contributions of Sam Altman to OpenAI's development but pointed out the irony in his company leading closed AI models while having the word "open" in its name.

Meanwhile, on Wednesday, Meta reported second-quarter revenue of $39.07 billion, surpassing analyst predictions of $38.31 billion. The company also reported adjusted earnings of $5.16 per share for the second quarter, exceeding the estimated $4.73 per share.

Price Action: Meta shares surged by 7.17% in after-hours trading, reaching $508.87 at the time of writing. The regular session on Wednesday concluded with a 2.51% increase, closing at $474.83, according to Benzinga Pro.

Disclaimer: This content was partially produced with the help of AI tools and was reviewed and published by Benzinga editors.