Episode summary
Zuckerberg Pledges ‘Aggressive’ Pricing With Meta’s First Pay-to-Use AI | Bloomberg Intelligence
Bloomberg Intelligence
· · 22 min · Hosts: Paul Sweeney, Jess Menton · Guests: Kurt Wagner, Ken Shea, Mary Ross Gilbert, Daniela Sirtori
Summary
Meta’s new Muse Spark 1.1 marks the company’s first paid tier for developers, and Kurt Wagner said Mark Zuckerberg acknowledged Meta is still trailing OpenAI and Anthropic in much of the AI race. Zuckerberg’s pitch is that Meta needs to control its own frontier model so it can build personalized assistants for everyone and avoid depending on rivals for a core technology. Wagner also said Meta is starting to sketch out a clearer AI business model through subscriptions, business agents, API access and possibly cloud services, which is helping investors see a path to monetization.
PepsiCo’s second quarter showed how higher gas prices and softer consumer demand are pressuring its North American food business. Ken Shea said PepsiCo is trying to rebalance price and volume after aggressive pricing in recent years, but cost inflation is returning and the company may need more price increases later this year. He also noted that tariff refunds could help offset some costs.
Levi Strauss raised full-year guidance again after broad-based growth, especially in women’s, Beyond Yoga, Asia and direct-to-consumer. Mary Ross Gilbert said the company still sees room for margin expansion as its global operating system rolls out, while Starbucks is using AI to decide whether to build more software in-house and cut spending, potentially reshaping software vendor exposure.
Key takeaways
- Kurt Wagner said Meta’s Muse Spark 1.1 is the first time Meta has charged businesses for model access, but Zuckerberg still views Meta as trailing OpenAI and Anthropic.
- Wagner said Meta is building a clearer AI monetization plan through subscriptions, business agents, APIs and possibly cloud services.
- Ken Shea said PepsiCo is balancing lower pricing with volume recovery, but higher gas prices and renewed cost inflation could force more price increases in the second half.
- Mary Ross Gilbert said Levi Strauss raised guidance again after 6% organic growth and sees margin upside as its global systems rollout continues.
- Daniela Sirtori said Starbucks is reviewing software contracts and may build more tools in-house with AI to cut costs and reduce dependence on outside vendors.
Notable quotes
“the prior models that the company has released have really been seen as sort of second tier behind the open AIs, the anthropics and even the Googles of the world”
“they want every single person to be able to open their phone or turn put on their smart glasses and and have that personal AI assistant there”
“They're going to be selling access to AI agents for businesses”
“PepsiCo today um pretty much gave a a report that was widely expected quite frankly”
“They really want to beat. But what this says is that the brand is relevant around the globe across income groups”
How the episode opens
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Some news from Meta. Meta Platforms unveiled a version of its AI model dubbed Muse Spark 1.1 that includes a new paid tier for developers, marking the first time Meta has charged businesses for access to its models. Let's get the more details from Kurt Wagner, senior reporter covering social media for Bloomberg News, who just sat down with uh Mark Zuckerberg's Meta CEO uh and had a wide-ranging interview.
Kurt, thanks so much for joining us here. Talk to us about what you and Mr. Zuckerberg discussed regarding Meta's AI strategy here.
Yeah. Well, I mean, the the motivator behind the interview was this release that you just mentioned, the Muspark 1.1, and we spent a good chunk of time talking about where Meta stands in the AI race right now. I think the prior models that the company has released have really been seen as sort of second tier behind the open AIs, the anthropics and even the Googles of the world.
I think Mark Zuckerberg admitted to me in our conversation that they're still trailing anthropic and and open AI in a lot of ways, but he was very proud that this new model uh benchmarked better than the Google models.
From the episode’s captions: roughly the first two minutes, lightly cleaned. Keep watching on YouTube →
Topics
- meta ai pricing
- agentic ai models
- pepsico earnings
- levi strauss earnings
- starbucks in-house ai tools
Companies and tickers mentioned
- META
- PEP
- LEVI
- SBUX
- MSFT
- IBM
- Meta Platforms
- PepsiCo
- Levi Strauss & Co.
- Starbucks
- Microsoft
- International Business Machines
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Summary, takeaways and quote selection by Octagon. Quotes are short excerpts; the full conversation is in the episode.
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