As AI consultants based in Rosenheim, Germany, we recommend Stability AI for enterprises seeking high-quality image, video, and audio generation with open weights and full data control. With Stable Diffusion 3.5 and the new Stable Audio 3.0 (May 2026), Stability AI offers one of the most powerful open-source generation ecosystems on the market.
From StableLM to Stable Diffusion 3.5
Stability AI underwent a turbulent period in 2023/2024 (founder resignation, funding difficulties) but has since stabilized. Since June 2024, CEO Prem Akkaraju (formerly Weta Digital) leads the company with fresh capital (~$80M). In November 2025, Stability AI won the copyright lawsuit with Getty Images in the High Court of England and Wales. The company focuses on its core competency: generative models for image, video, and audio. The StableLM language models are no longer actively developed.
Why Stability AI for Enterprises?
- Open Weights: Models freely available on Hugging Face
- EU Hosting: Via AWS Bedrock in Frankfurt or self-hosting
- Broad Ecosystem: Thousands of community extensions and LoRA models
- Multimodal: Image, video, and audio from a single provider
- GDPR-Compliant: Full self-hosting possible
Stable Diffusion 3.5 – The Flagship
Stable Diffusion 3.5 (October 2024) represents a significant quality leap over previous versions. The new architecture is based on a Diffusion Transformer (DiT) with a dual text encoder (CLIP and T5).
Three Variants for Different Requirements
| Variant | Parameters | VRAM | Strength |
|---|---|---|---|
| SD 3.5 Large | 8B | ~24 GB | Highest quality |
| SD 3.5 Medium | 2.6B | ~10 GB | Balanced profile |
| SD 3.5 Large Turbo | 8B | ~24 GB | Fast inference |
SD 3.5 Large delivers industry-leading prompt adherence and image quality. The Turbo variant is suited for applications with real-time requirements, while Medium offers a good compromise between quality and resource demands.
Beyond Images: Video and Audio
Stable Video Diffusion 2.0
Stable Video Diffusion 2.0 (2025) enables the generation of short video clips from text prompts or single images. The technology is suitable for product animations, social media content, and creative prototypes.
Stable Audio 3.0 – New Audio Generation (May 2026)
On May 20, 2026, Stability AI released Stable Audio 3.0 – a family of four models (Small SFX and Small at 459M each, Medium at 1.4B, and Large at 2.7B parameters). Medium and Large can generate compositions up to 6 minutes and 20 seconds long while maintaining musical structure and melody – more than double the length of the predecessor Stable Audio 2.0.
Small SFX, Small, and Medium are available as open weights on Hugging Face and can be self-hosted in a GDPR-compliant manner. The Large variant is exclusively accessible through the Stability AI API, partner fal.ai, or an enterprise license. Important for businesses: companies with more than $1M in annual revenue require an enterprise license for commercial use. All models were trained on fully licensed data (AudioSparx library and Creative Commons recordings from Freesound) – a clear compliance advantage over competing audio models.
StableLM – Language Model Status
The StableLM language models (StableLM 2 1.6B, StableLM Zephyr 3B) have reached deprecated status. They are no longer actively maintained and are not recommended for production applications. For language models, we recommend more capable alternatives such as Meta Llama or Microsoft Phi.
GDPR-Compliant Deployment in the EU
Stability AI offers several options for European enterprises:
- AWS Bedrock: Stable Diffusion 3.x available in Frankfurt (eu-central-1)
- Self-Hosting: Download open weights from Hugging Face and run on your own infrastructure
- Azure AI: Limited availability
Through open model weights, enterprises retain full control over their data – a decisive advantage for GDPR compliance.
Integration with CompanyGPT
Stability AI models can be integrated in CompanyGPT as a self-hosted option for image generation – ideal for marketing teams that want to create visual assets internally and in compliance with data protection regulations.
Our Recommendation
Stable Diffusion 3.5 Large is the top choice for enterprises that need high-quality image generation with full data control. For resource-constrained environments, SD 3.5 Medium offers a compelling alternative.
Those who additionally need video or audio generation will find a growing ecosystem with Stable Video Diffusion 2.0 and the new Stable Audio 3.0 (May 2026) – including open-weights options for GDPR-compliant self-hosting. For pure language model applications, however, we recommend alternatives like Meta Llama or Mistral.