In mid-March, Meta announced that downloads of its open-source Llama AI models had reached 1 billion. That figure was up from 650 million in early December of the previous year, representing more than 50% quarter-on-quarter growth. On Tuesday, during its first-ever developer conference, LlamaCon, Meta shared another milestone—Llama model downloads had reached 1.2 billion.
“We have thousands of developers creating tens of thousands of derivative models that are downloaded hundreds of thousands of times a month,” Meta’s chief product officer Chris Cox said during the keynote. The growth highlights the expanding ecosystem around Llama, which continues to attract developers and users worldwide.
Meanwhile, Meta AI—the digital assistant powered by Llama models—is also seeing significant traction. According to Cox, Meta AI currently serves around a billion users, marking another strong indicator of the model’s adoption and reach.
Rising Competition in the AI Space
Despite its rapid growth, Meta is facing increased competition in the AI space, notes NIX Solutions. Just one day before LlamaCon, the Chinese tech company Alibaba introduced Qwen3, a family of flagship AI models. Qwen3 is positioned as highly competitive in several areas, challenging Llama’s position in the evolving market.
Meta’s progress signals its commitment to remaining a central player in open-source AI development. However, with global rivals also scaling up their AI initiatives, the landscape remains dynamic. We’ll keep you updated as more integrations and models become available and the race for AI dominance continues to unfold.