Meta Boosts Watermelon AI with 10x Compute Power

Meta is significantly boosting its AI development by training a new model called Watermelon. This new model uses ten times the computational power of its predecessor. This move comes after engineering delays in the company's AI pipeline. Meta AI chief Alexandr Wang says this increased power aims to make Watermelon competitive with OpenAI's GPT-5.5. This marks a shift toward closed, proprietary systems for Meta. The company previously focused on its text-based Avocado model, which was delayed until at least May 2026. Meta is also developing Mango for image and video generation. To support this, Meta invested $14.3 billion in Scale AI in June 2025, and Scale AI founder Alexandr Wang became Meta's chief AI officer. This shows a strong focus on proprietary technology, moving away from its past open-source approach. This highlights the unpredictable nature of advanced AI development.