Meta Invests in Scale AI

Meta is reportedly investing $14.8 billion for a 49% stake in Scale AI, a data labelling company valued at approximately $30 billion. This move signifies Meta's strategic shift towards bolstering its AI capabilities, particularly in training large AI models with high-quality labelled data. Scale AI's expertise in data labelling and model evaluation is crucial for developing advanced AI applications. The deal will involve Meta directly investing cash into Scale AI's existing shareholders.

As part of the agreement, Scale AI's founder and CEO, Alexandr Wang, is expected to assume a senior role within Meta, potentially leading a new 'superintelligence' lab. This collaboration aims to accelerate Meta's progress in artificial general intelligence (AGI), helping them to catch up with industry rivals like OpenAI and Google. Meta's increased investment in AI includes a projected $72 billion in capital expenditure this year, highlighting its commitment to expanding its AI infrastructure and talent pool.

Scale AI, founded in 2016, has become a key player in the AI infrastructure space, providing essential data services to companies like Microsoft and OpenAI, as well as government entities like the U.S. Department of Defense. This investment marks a significant external AI investment for Meta, which has traditionally focused on in-house AI development and open-source initiatives like its Llama large language model.