Meta’s answer to DeepSeek is here: Llama 4 launches with long context Scout and Maverick models, and 2T parameter Behemoth on the way!

The entire AI landscape shifted back in January 2025 after a then little-known Chinese AI startup DeepSeek (a subsidiary of the Hong Kong-based quantitative analysis firm High-Flyer Capital Management) launched its powerful open source language reasoning model DeepSeek R1 publicly to the world, besting U.S. giants such as Meta.

As DeepSeek usage spread rapidly among researchers and enterprises, Meta was reportedly sent into panic mode upon learning that this new R1 model had been trained for a fraction of the cost of many other leading models yet outclassed them, reportedly for as little as several million dollars — what it pays some of its own AI team leaders.

Meta’s whole generative AI strategy had until that point been predicated on releasing best-in-class open source models under its brand name “Llama” for researchers and companies to build upon freely (at least, if they had fewer ...