What happened
Base44, the vibe coding platform acquired by Wix for $80 million, launched its own AI model, Base1, to support app creation with natural language. This custom large language model, trained on tens of millions of user interactions, aims to optimise latency, cost, and efficiency, according to founder Maor Shlomo. The move follows Base44 reaching $100 million in annual recurring revenue, positioning it to reduce reliance on external frontier models and improve its margin profile.
Why it matters
Owning proprietary models shifts unit economics for platform engineers, reducing inference costs and improving performance customisation. This move by Base44 demonstrates a strategic pivot for AI startups with sufficient data and distribution to build defensibility against larger frontier model providers. Procurement teams will face increased pressure to evaluate specialised, vertically integrated solutions against general-purpose models for specific use cases, particularly as inference costs become a significant factor.
