Scale AI announced on Thursday that Meta Platforms has completed an investment deal valuing the startup at over $29 billion.
According to two sources with knowledge of the deal, Meta’s investment totals approximately $14.3 billion.
The sources revealed that Scale AI CEO and cofounder Alexandr Wang will join Meta’s newly formed “superintelligence” unit, which aims to develop artificial general intelligence (AGI)—machines capable of equaling or exceeding human intelligence.
Scale AI announced that its Chief Strategy Officer, Jason Droege, will take over as interim CEO following Alexandr Wang’s departure.
By bringing Wang on board—despite his lack of formal experience in frontier AI research—Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg appears to be betting on a business-savvy leader akin to OpenAI’s Sam Altman, rather than following the model of research scientists leading most rival AI labs.
The investment deal marks Meta’s second-largest ever, trailing only its $19 billion acquisition of WhatsApp.
Notably, since many AI labs have relied on Scale for data services, Zuckerberg may also gain valuable insight into competitors’ data strategies—a crucial asset in training advanced AI models.
In May 2024, Scale AI raised $1 billion in funding from prominent backers including Nvidia, Amazon, and Meta, which brought the company’s valuation to nearly $14 billion.
Founded in 2016, Scale AI specializes in delivering large volumes of precisely labeled data—an essential resource for training advanced AI models like OpenAI’s ChatGPT.
To achieve this, the company established subsidiary platforms such as Remotasks and Outlier, which recruit and manage gig workers who manually annotate data.
Wang, the 28-year-old co-founder, has led the company through various high-growth tech phases, initially focusing on autonomous vehicles and now shifting toward the booming field of generative AI.
With Meta’s strategic investment and Alexandr Wang joining its superintelligence unit, Scale AI stands at the center of a pivotal shift in the AI landscape. The deal not only signals Meta’s aggressive push toward achieving artificial general intelligence but also highlights the growing importance of high-quality data in shaping next-generation AI models. As leadership transitions and new alliances form, Scale is well-positioned to influence the future trajectory of AI development.
