Meta Makes Major AI Move With $14.3 Billion Stake in Scale, Hires CEO

Meta, the company behind Facebook and Instagram, has made a massive move in the race for artificial intelligence.

On Thursday, the company revealed a $14.3 billion investment in AI startup Scale, securing a 49% ownership stake in the business.

As part of the agreement, Scale CEO Alexandr Wang will join Meta to head a new team dedicated to building "superintelligence."

According to Reuters, this marks one of Meta's most significant investments to date, second only to its $19 billion acquisition of WhatsApp.

The company hopes Wang, a young tech leader who built Scale into a top AI company, will help bring fresh direction to its AI efforts.

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg believes Wang's business skills can help guide the company in competing with other tech giants, such as Google and OpenAI.

"We will deepen the work we do together producing data for AI models," Meta said in a statement.

Wang will take on a leadership role at Meta for the new project while continuing to serve on Scale's board of directors.

Scale AI Stays Independent as CEO Wang Heads to Meta

Now 28, Wang founded Scale at just 19 years old after leaving MIT to pursue the venture.

He helped make Scale a major player in the AI world by supplying data needed to train innovative computer systems.

Companies like General Motors and OpenAI have used Scale's services to improve their technology.

Scale hires workers to label data, like identifying people or objects in photos, so computers can better understand the world. That data is crucial for building systems like ChatGPT or Meta's own Llama models.

Scale will remain an independent company, now valued at $29 billion, and Jason Droege—formerly chief strategy officer—will take over as interim CEO, AP News said.

While a few Scale employees will join Wang at Meta, the rest of the company will continue running as usual.

Still, the deal may raise concerns among Scale's other clients, who might worry that Meta could gain access to sensitive information.

Scale says the agreement will expand its business with Meta, but hasn't said how it will handle any possible conflicts.

After years of pushing the metaverse, Zuckerberg is now betting on AI as the future.

Originally published on vcpost.com