Meta releases Muse Spark Open with Apple collaboration for Mac Studio
In short
Meta released Muse Spark Open, an open-weight AI model optimised with Apple to run locally on Mac Studio computers. The companies describe a setup using two M5 Ultra machines with 512GB of memory each and Apple's MLX framework.
Read the full story 1 min read
Meta released Muse Spark Open on October 15, working with Apple to make the open-weight artificial intelligence model run locally on Mac Studio computers. CNBC reported that the announcement followed months of collaboration between the companies. Meta chief executive Mark Zuckerberg publicly thanked Apple and John Ternus for the work, while Ternus congratulated the team in a reply, according to CNBC, MacRumors and The Verge. [ 2 , 5 , 6 ]
Meta describes Muse Spark Open as a natively multimodal model designed for coding, software engineering, extended tasks and multi-step reasoning. It has 816 billion total parameters, 42 billion active parameters and a one-million-token context window, according to details reported by 9to5Mac and MacRumors. CNBC describes it as a mixture-of-experts model with a licence allowing limited commercial use. Developers can download the weights and run them on their own hardware, CNBC reported. [ 1 , 2 , 5 ]
The Mac configuration uses Apple's latest MLX framework, which is designed for Apple silicon. Meta says two M5 Ultra Mac Studios, each with 512GB of unified memory, can hold the entire model. CNBC says customers can pair between two and four Mac Studio computers for coding, video analysis and other agentic work. The companies say local operation offers security and cost benefits compared with cloud use, according to CNBC. [ 1 , 2 , 5 , 6 ]
The model weights are available from Hugging Face, according to 9to5Mac and Engadget. Engadget reported that Apple had not announced specific pricing or a shipping date for the 512GB Mac Studio beyond late October. It put a four-machine configuration using 256GB models at roughly $38,000. Meta calls Muse Spark Open its most capable US open-weight model to date; Engadget attributes comparisons with other models to benchmarks released by the company. [ 1 , 4 ]
Why it matters
The collaboration lets developers run the model on desktop hardware rather than in the cloud. The companies cite security and cost benefits, although Engadget reports substantial hardware costs and says pricing and a shipping date for the 512GB Mac Studio have not been announced.
Key facts
- Meta and Apple collaborated to run Muse Spark Open locally on Mac Studio computers. [ 1 , 2 , 5 , 6 ]
- The model has 816 billion total parameters, 42 billion active parameters and a one-million-token context window, according to Meta. [ 1 , 5 ]
- Meta describes a configuration with two 512GB M5 Ultra Mac Studios using the latest MLX framework. [ 1 , 5 , 6 ]
- The model weights are available from Hugging Face. [ 1 , 4 ]
- CNBC reports that the model's licence allows limited commercial use. [ 2 ]
Confirmed by several sources
Still unclear
- Whether the model's claimed performance lead holds in independent testing. The reported performance comparisons are Meta's claims and company benchmarks.
- Whether the collaboration will develop into a deeper partnership. CNBC says representatives of both companies declined to say.