Meta AI chief says new ‘Watermelon’ model has caught up to OpenAI’s GPT-5.5

Meta is intensifying its artificial intelligence ambitions as the company claims its next-generation AI model is rapidly closing the performance gap with the industry's leading systems. According to reports from an internal company meeting, Meta's Chief AI Officer, Alexandr Wang, told employees that the company's upcoming large language model, internally codenamed "Watermelon," has achieved performance levels comparable to OpenAI's latest flagship AI models.

The new model is currently undergoing large-scale training and reportedly uses nearly ten times more computing power than Meta's previous-generation model, reflecting the company's massive investment in AI infrastructure, advanced data centers, and next-generation computing hardware.

Wang also revealed that Meta will soon release an upgraded version of its existing AI model, Muse Spark, featuring major improvements in coding capabilities, reasoning, and autonomous AI agent functions. The update is expected to strengthen Meta's position against competitors including OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, and xAI as the race to develop more capable AI assistants accelerates.

The company's aggressive AI strategy comes after CEO Mark Zuckerberg committed tens of billions of dollars toward expanding Meta's AI ecosystem. Recent investments include hiring top AI researchers, building new supercomputing clusters, and developing custom AI chips designed to train increasingly sophisticated foundation models.

Despite those investments, industry analysts have noted that Meta has struggled to consistently match the performance of OpenAI's and Anthropic's flagship models. However, executives now believe the company's latest research efforts are beginning to produce meaningful results.

During the internal discussion, Zuckerberg reportedly acknowledged that Meta has undergone significant organizational changes to accelerate AI development, including restructuring teams and reducing roles in areas considered less critical to the company's long-term AI roadmap.

The competition among major AI companies has intensified throughout 2026 as businesses race to build increasingly powerful models capable of advanced reasoning, software development, scientific research, and enterprise automation. Companies are also competing to attract elite AI researchers with multi-million-dollar compensation packages.

If Meta's upcoming models perform as expected, they could strengthen the company's position in consumer AI products, enterprise software, and future AI-powered hardware, while increasing pressure on rivals in one of the technology industry's fastest-moving sectors.