Meta announces a $14.8 billion deal with Scale AI, the data-labeling startup, which has been its second-largest investment to date. It gives the owner of Facebook a 49 percent nonvoting stake in Scale AI, which uses gig workers to manually label data and includes among its customers Meta competitors Microsoft and ChatGPT creator OpenAI. This move is part of Meta’s strategy to strengthen its AI capabilities, with Alexandr Wang joining Meta to lead its superintelligence efforts. However, this deal has led to concerns among AI companies like Google, which is reportedly cutting ties with Scale AI due to Meta’s involvement.
Unlike an acquisition or a transaction that would give Meta a controlling stake, the deal does not require a review by US antitrust regulators. However, they could probe the deal if they believe it was structured to avoid those requirements or harm competition. The deal appeared to be structured to avoid potential pitfalls, such as cutting off competitors' access to Scale's services or giving Meta an inside view into rivals' operations.
As per the sources, a Scale AI spokesperson said its business, which spans work with major companies and governments, remains strong, as it is committed to protecting customer data.
Alexandr Wang, Scale's CEO who is coming to Meta as part of the deal, will remain on Scale's board but will have appropriate restrictions placed around his access to information.
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Scale AI is a company specializing in data labeling and model evaluation for artificial intelligence applications. Founded in 2016 by Alexandr Wang and Lucy Guo, it has grown into a major player in AI infrastructure, providing high-quality labeled data for training AI models. It works with various industries, including autonomous vehicles, government agencies, and generative AI companies.