Base44 Builds Its Own AI, Defying Big Tech Models

Base44, acquired by Wix a year ago for $80 million, is developing its own AI model, Base1, to enhance app creation through natural language processing. This strategic move addresses the debate on whether businesses built on external models are defensible long-term and the suitability of frontier models for all use cases.

Founder Maor Shlomo anticipates that Base1 will eventually outperform general frontier models. Training and owning the model within their stack allows for significant optimizations in latency, cost, and efficiency. This approach is seen as a way to stay ahead of competitors who rely on external LLMs.

The company states that Base1 was developed and trained on a dataset derived from tens of millions of real user interactions on the platform. This proprietary dataset is expected to grow, enhancing the model's capabilities and contributing to the company's defensibility through data, distribution, and tech stack ownership.

This development comes as inference costs become a significant factor, with enterprise customers increasingly demanding optimized solutions. Base44 aims for a model that is faster, cheaper, and more aligned with user needs than current frontier models, potentially leading to a structurally stronger margin profile over time.