Meta's $14.3B investment in Scale AI brings CEO Alexandr Wang into its AI leadership fold. The move signals a bold shift in strategy amid AI rivalry.
Meta Platforms has entered into a major partnership with Scale AI, a U.S.-based data-labeling startup, by acquiring a 49% stake in the company for $14.3 billion. The move values Scale AI at $29 billion and puts its 28-year-old founder and CEO, Alexandr Wang, in the spotlight.
Following the deal, Wang is set to play a key role in Meta’s ambitious artificial intelligence plans, particularly in its new superintelligence division.
Meta confirmed the development in a statement, noting, “We will deepen the work we do together producing data for AI models and Alexandr Wang will join Meta to work on our superintelligence efforts.”
Jason Droege, a former Uber executive, will take over as interim CEO of Scale AI, allowing Wang to shift his focus to Meta’s internal projects.
According to reports shared with Reuters, the central aim behind Meta’s substantial investment was to secure Wang’s leadership for its future AI strategy.
Wang’s story began in Los Alamos, New Mexico, where he was raised by Chinese immigrant parents who worked as physicists.
He enrolled at MIT but left early to co-found Scale AI in 2016, a company that quickly rose through the ranks in Silicon Valley.
Despite lacking a traditional research background, Wang was able to attract top-tier venture capital funding and earned a billionaire status while still in his twenties.
His reputation as a sharp and fast-moving entrepreneur made him a desirable asset in the competitive AI space.
Once a leader in open-source AI, Meta has faced internal disruptions due to staff turnover, causing delays in model development.
As tech giants like Google, OpenAI, and China’s DeepSeek rapidly progress in generative AI, Meta has struggled to keep pace.
Bringing Wang on board is a strategic bet by Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg.
By tapping someone who built a billion-dollar AI business outside of traditional research labs, Meta hopes to adopt a more product- and execution-oriented approach — similar to OpenAI’s Sam Altman.
Reuters reported that Meta believes Wang’s business-centric mindset could be what its AI efforts need to regain momentum.
Despite its significant investment, Meta does not plan to take a seat on Scale AI’s board, according to insiders.
Only a select group of employees from Scale’s 1,500-strong workforce will transition to Meta, accompanying Wang. He will also continue to serve on Scale’s board.
What remains uncertain is whether this massive deal will attract regulatory attention. Meta has previously faced legal battles with the U.S. Federal Trade Commission over its acquisitions of Instagram and WhatsApp, with accusations of anti-competitive behavior.
Founded in 2016, Scale AI built its business around providing the large, accurately labeled datasets required to train advanced AI systems such as OpenAI’s ChatGPT.
To handle this task, the company developed platforms like Remotasks and Outlier, which manage thousands of gig workers globally for manual data labeling tasks.
Before Meta’s stake purchase, Scale AI was valued at $14 billion during its May 2024 funding round, which included investors like Nvidia, Amazon, and Meta itself.
With the new valuation hitting $29 billion, the company appears poised for its next phase — even as its founder steps into a role that could influence the future of AI development at one of the world’s biggest tech firms.
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