By Adam Clark
Meta Platforms is fighting to keep up in the artificial-intelligence race. Its next move is an increasingly important part of the competition: AI-generated video.
Meta is planning to release a new image- and video-focused AI model alongside the next version of its text-based model, The Wall Street Journal reported, citing comments made internally by the company's chief AI officer, Alexandr Wang.
Meta didn't immediately respond to a request for comment on Friday.
Meta will be facing stiff competition. When it comes to creative tools for image and video, Alphabet's Google has led, with products like Veo and Nano Banana, followed by OpenAI, which has Sora, and Adobe, with its Firefly product.
When AI models first hit the mainstream with ChatGPT back in late 2023, the attention was on their capacity to communicate via text. Increasingly, the ability to generate viral images and video has taken center stage for new launches and is one of the key ways to acquire a large consumer base.
Analysts at BofA Securities note that Google launched its Nano Banana image-generator model in late August and subsequently saw a 45% month-over-month increase in downloads for its Gemini AI app in September.
"The rise in popularity was likely due to the introduction of Nano Banana feature, which allows users to make more precise edits to images based on natural language prompts," wrote BofA Securities analysts in a research note.
The models -- code-named Mango (images and video) and Avocado (text) -- are expected in the first half of 2026, the Journal reported.
The launch will be a significant test for Meta's remodeled AI team. Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg went on a hiring spree this year for a new division named Superintelligence Labs to develop the next generation of models. The unit is led by Wang, formerly founder of Scale AI, a data-labeling start-up of which Meta acquired a 49% share for $14 billion.
The AI race is an expensive one. Google's launch of Gemini 3 in November was generally viewed to have given it a leadership position. OpenAI has sought to strike back with its own GPT-5.2 update and is now aiming to raise as much as $100 billion at a valuation of up to $830 billion, according to the Journal.
Zuckerberg said in a post on Threads earlier this year that it was "quite possible" his company could invest more than a planned $600 billion in the U.S. through 2028 if AI progress keeps accelerating.
Meta shares were down 0.2% in early trading on Friday.
Write to Adam Clark at adam.clark@barrons.com
This content was created by Barron's, which is operated by Dow Jones & Co. Barron's is published independently from Dow Jones Newswires and The Wall Street Journal.
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December 19, 2025 10:42 ET (15:42 GMT)
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