Meta Platforms Inc META shares fell 2.2% to $645.07 on Thursday afternoon following a Wall Street Journal report that revealed delays in the company's release of its next-generation AI model, codenamed Behemoth.

The model, once expected as early as April, has now been pushed to fall or later, according to people familiar with the matter, the Wall Street Journal said.

What To Know: Engineers have reportedly struggled to achieve meaningful improvements over previous versions, leading to internal debate over whether Behemoth is ready for public release.

Although Meta has promoted Behemoth as surpassing OpenAI and Alphabet (Google) models in some benchmarks, training difficulties have stunted progress, the Wall Street Journal noted.

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The delay comes amid mounting pressure on Meta's AI ambitions, which are backed by a projected $72 billion in capital expenditures this year.

Internal frustrations have surfaced, with some executives blaming the Llama 4 team for the setbacks and considering management changes, the Wall Street Journal noted.

The Wall Street Journal said Meta on Thursday declined to comment on the timeline or internal issues. The delays echo broader industry slowdowns, with companies such as OpenAI and Anthropic also facing lags in rolling out advanced models.

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How To Buy META Stock

Besides going to a brokerage platform to purchase a share — or fractional share — of stock, you can also gain access to shares either by buying an exchange traded fund (ETF) that holds the stock itself, or by allocating yourself to a strategy in your 401(k) that would seek to acquire shares in a mutual fund or other instrument.

For example, Meta Platforms is in the Communication Services sector. An ETF will likely hold shares in many liquid and large companies that help track that sector, allowing an investor to gain exposure to the trends within that segment.

According to data from Benzinga Pro, META has a 52-week high of $740.89 and a 52-week low of $442.65.

Photo: Courtesy of Meta Platforms