Meta credits Apple for 816 bn-parameter AI model on Mac Studio

Meta Platforms credited Apple with helping its 816-billion-parameter artificial-intelligence model run on Mac Studio computers on October 15, according to a TheStreet article published October 17.

The October 15 work matters for Apple and Meta investors because it pairs Apple's hardware with Meta's open AI push, after Meta said Apple's app-tracking rules would cut 2022 sales by about $10 billion.

Meta Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg publicly thanked Apple Chief Executive John Ternus for the work, TheStreet said, citing CNBC. The model “runs great on new Mac Studios thanks to work with @johnternus and Apple,” Zuckerberg wrote, according to the article.

Ternus responded on X with a hardware-focused message. “Amazing to run a model of Muse Spark Open’s caliber and scale this efficiently, right from your desk,” he wrote, according to TheStreet.

Meta released downloadable weights for Muse Spark Open, meaning the trained model files developers need to run it, TheStreet said, citing CNBC and Meta. The model was optimized for Apple's M5 Ultra chip and can run on two to four linked Mac Studio machines, according to the article.

The technical detail helps explain the investor angle. TheStreet said the model has 816 billion parameters, the internal settings that shape an AI system's outputs, though about 42 billion are active on any given word. Meta said two Mac Studios can operate with 1 terabyte of unified memory, according to the article.

The hardware is not cheap, but it is small compared with Meta's infrastructure budget. A Mac Studio with an M5 Ultra chip and 256 GB of memory starts at $10,799, TheStreet said, citing CNBC; a two-machine setup would start at $21,598 before upgrades, according to Atlas360 calculations. Meta's capital expenditure was $30.12 billion in the second quarter, TheStreet said, citing 24/7 Wall Street.

The collaboration marks a public thaw after years of conflict between the companies. TheStreet said CNBC reported that Apple and Meta had not publicly partnered since around 2017. Tim Cook moved to executive chairman and Ternus became Apple CEO on September 1, according to Apple information cited in the article.

The risk for Apple is that Meta's AI work may also compete with parts of Apple's services business. Bank of America analyst Wamsi Mohan wrote on September 29 that AI agents such as Muse could divert shopping, referrals and payments away from Apple's ecosystem, TheStreet said, citing 9to5Mac. “Whomever the agent chooses becomes the merchant,” Mohan wrote, according to the article.

Apple shares fell more than 2.5% on September 29 after that warning, while Bank of America kept its buy rating, TheStreet said, citing 9to5Mac. On October 15, Apple slipped 0.28% to $342.00 and Meta dipped 0.11% to $736.72, according to TheStreet, citing 24/7 Wall Street.

Neither Apple nor Meta disclosed financial terms for the Muse Spark Open collaboration, and both companies declined to say whether more joint work is planned, TheStreet said, citing CNBC.