META
Zuckerberg is building a superintelligence team like it’s Avengers
Meta is putting $15bn into Scale AI, the data-labelling start-up, and bringing on its founder Alexandr Wang, all in a move to stay competitive in the AI space.
The deal pushes Scale’s value to $29bn, twice what it was last year, and gives Meta a 49% stake.
Scale, known for helping companies train AI with labelled data, will now expand its work with Meta.
Wang will join Meta’s AI team while keeping a seat on Scale’s board.
Jason Droege, a former Uber Eats exec, steps in as interim CEO.
It’s part of Meta’s broader effort to intensify its AI initiatives, particularly in generative AI and “superintelligence.”
The company is spending big, with most of its $72bn capital budget this year going into servers and data centres.
This deal mirrors what others in the industry are doing too, Microsoft, for example, paid $650mn last year to hire the team behind Inflection, and Google put $2.7bn into Character.AI.
Here’s what you should know:
Meta now owns 49% of Scale AI after a $15bn deal
Founder Alexandr Wang joins Meta while staying on Scale’s board
Scale’s revenue this year is expected to hit $2bn from data-labelling for major AI firms
Big Tech’s talent snatch
Scale started out working with self-driving car firms but now makes most of its money labelling data for major AI players like OpenAI.
The investment is also paying off for early backers, Tiger Global’s $200mn stake is now worth over $1bn.
Big Tech treating AI start-ups like Pokémon, gotta catch ‘em all.