Meta is building internal teams to enable developers and partners to use Llama and is actively building partnerships with ecosystem companies.

Judged as of 2024-07-23. The claim has two parts: (1) Meta was building internal teams to help developers and partners use Llama, and (2) Meta was actively building partnerships with ecosystem companies. True: both are documented around that date. For (2), this means announced Llama partners such as AWS, Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud, NVIDIA, Databricks, Groq, Dell or Snowflake. For (1), this means evidence of internal teams or programs supporting Llama adoption. Mostly true: the partnerships are well documented and the internal teams are only lightly evidenced. Mixed: only one part is supported. Mostly false: there is little evidence for either part beyond the statement itself. False: evidence shows Meta was not doing either.

Set before the research began.

1. E1 Meta releases the biggest and best open-source AI model yet The Verge · 23 July 2024

   “To help get Llama 3.1 out into the world, Meta is working with more than two dozen companies, including Microsoft, Amazon, Google, Nvidia, and Databricks, to help developers deploy their own versions.”

2. E2 Why Meta’s Llama 3.1 is a boon for enterprises and a bane for other LLM vendors InfoWorld · 24 July 2024

   “Meta said it had partnered with the likes of Accenture, AWS, AMD, Anyscale, Cloudflare, Databricks, Dell, Deloitte, Fireworks.ai, Google Cloud, Groq, Hugging Face, IBM watsonx, Infosys, Intel, Kaggle, Microsoft Azure, Nvidia DGX Cloud, OctoAI, Oracle Cloud, PwC, Replicate, Sarvam AI, Scale.AI, SNCF, Snowflake, Together AI, and the UC Berkeley vLLM Project”

3. E3 Introducing Llama 3.1: Our most capable models to date Meta AI (ai.meta.com) Own record

   “We’d like to thank and acknowledge (in alphabetical order): Accenture, Amazon Web Services, AMD, Anyscale, CloudFlare, Databricks, Dell, Deloitte, Fireworks.ai, Google Cloud, Groq, Hugging Face, IBM WatsonX, Infosys, Intel, Kaggle, Microsoft Azure, NVIDIA, OctoAI, Oracle Cloud, PwC, Replicate, Sarvam AI, Scale.AI, SNCF, Snowflake, Together AI, and vLLM project developed in Sky Computing Lab at UC Berkeley.”

4. E4 Meta’s Llama models get 350 million downloads Computerworld · 30 August 2024

   “We’ve grown the number of partners in our Llama early access program by 5x with Llama 3.1 and will do more to meet the surging demand from partners”

Independent launch-day reporting confirms the partnership part. E1 says Meta was working with more than two dozen companies, including Microsoft, Amazon, Google, Nvidia and Databricks, to help developers deploy Llama 3.1. E2 lists named partners such as AWS, Azure, Google Cloud, Groq, Dell and Snowflake, and Meta's own acknowledgement list in E3 matches it. The internal-teams part has only light support: E4 quotes Meta saying the number of partners in its Llama early access program grew fivefold with Llama 3.1, but nothing directly documents internal teams set up for this purpose.