Meta's CTO breaks down who in Big Tech he thinks has an advantage in the AI race (and it's not Google)

• Meta CTO Andrew Bosworth said legacy companies may not necessarily prove to be winners in AI.
• He said in a recent podcast interview that Microsoft is well-positioned while Google faces "tension."
• Meta has poured tens of billions into AI and shows no signs of slowing down.

Google's "got the tension." Microsoft's in a "strong position." Amazon sits somewhere in the middle.

That's the assessment of Meta CTO Andrew Bosworth, who broke down his view of how legacy tech companies are faring in the AI race.

"The wisdom of any generation is: These big companies from the last generation are obviously going to win the next generation," Bosworth said on an episode of the "Possible" podcast. "And it almost never happens. It almost never happens."

The companies that rode up on previous waves of advances in tech won't necessarily come out on top, this time — Bosworth believes the world of AI has plenty of room for new players.

"I don't know why or how, but I suspect there is a lot of room for truly disruptive technologies," he said.

Bosworth said he credits Meta's open-source model, Llama, with providing startups what he described as a better base from which to innovate, and "building up the ecosystem" of fledgling companies.

"We're seeing that really play out materially as hyperscalers are forced to take on innovations that came out of these little startups, and obviously vice versa is happening," Bosworth said.

As for where Meta's industry-giant peers currently stand, Bosworth thinks Google has the roughest road ahead of it.

"Google has a business model challenge, right? Like are they willing to undermine and cannibalize one of the most successful business models, if not the most successful business model, of all time?" he said. "Boy, they've got the technology, the capability. They've got this tension. That's tough."

For Meta, though — Bosworth says AI's potential is "all gravy" for Meta.

Meta has poured billions into AI, and CEO Mark Zuckerberg said that the company plans to spend over $60 billion this year largely fueled by investments in the technology.

"All of our products just get better," he said. "They just get better. It's all good news for us."

Microsoft, Bosworth added, is equally poised to benefit.

"Microsoft, I think, is actually in a similarly strong position. Their products get better," Bosworth said. "The consumers who use Office products get better. Having all the AI doesn't make you able to build Office. But having Office with AI is better. So I feel like us and Microsoft win — kind of no matter what."

In Amazon's case, Bosworth thinks the company lies "somewhere in between."

"AWS certainly could be helped tremendously, but is it a race to the bottom, and they're just adding one more incremental service?" he said, referencing its Amazon Web Services cloud business. "So maybe it's a no-up for them."

Still, Bosworth added, there's the potential for the company to revamp existing offerings.

"They're announcing their partnership with Anthropic. They have a huge investment in Anthropic," he said. "Alexa has got a huge footprint. Can they rejuvenate Alexa with this new program?"

As for who'll emerge as clear winners when the dust of the initial hype eventually settles, Bosworth isn't counting out fledgling companies.

"The startups are a total wild card, and that's what I love about them," he said. "You know, they come out of nowhere."