# Meta releases Muse Spark Open, touted as highest‑performing open‑weights model in US

Digest AI · Generative AI & Models · published 2026-10-17T03:28:00Z

Canonical: https://digestai.news/story/meta-releases-muse-spark-open-touted-as-highestperforming-openweights

## Summary

Meta announced on Oct. 15, 2026 that it is making a new AI model called Muse Spark Open available for download. ITmedia AI+ reported that the model is being touted as the highest‑performing open‑weights system produced in the United States. The weights are posted on Hugging Face, so anyone can download them and run the model locally on their own hardware.

Muse Spark Open contains 816 billion parameters and uses a Mixture‑of‑Experts (MoE) architecture that activates roughly 42 billion parameters for each query. Reports say the model can read text, images, video and audio but only generates text output. To run it at usable speed, Apple’s verification indicated that two Mac Studio machines equipped with M5 Ultra chips are needed, delivering about 25 tokens per second per pair of units (around 36 tokens per second with four units). Commercial use is permitted under certain conditions, but the model is far beyond the capability of a typical laptop.

The release highlights a shift toward open‑weight, locally runnable AI, which may appeal to organizations that must keep data on‑premise or want to avoid cloud‑based inference costs.

## Key points

- Muse Spark Open has 816 billion parameters and uses MoE, activating about 42 billion per query.
- Weights are publicly released on Hugging Face, enabling local execution on high‑end hardware.
- Running the model requires two Mac Studios with M5 Ultra, achieving ~25 tokens/sec per pair.

## Why it matters

Open‑weight, locally runnable models let organizations keep data on‑premise and avoid cloud fees, while the massive size shows the scaling frontier for open AI.

## Sources

1. [Meta×AI What is Muse Spark Open? | For those who only use ChatGPT, a 3-minute guide to AI that runs without the internet](https://note.com/ai_template_lab_/n/n48b0bc8b88a5?hl=en) (note.com, 2026-10-17)

Part of the developing story: [Muse Spark Open Expands Across Tech Giants](https://digestai.news/thread/apple-benchmarks-muse-spark-open-on-mac-studio-with-mlx-and-rdma) (3 stories)

## Cite

Digest AI, "Meta releases Muse Spark Open, touted as highest‑performing open‑weights model in US", 17 October 2026, https://digestai.news/story/meta-releases-muse-spark-open-touted-as-highestperforming-openweights

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