Meta is reportedly discussing a multibillion-dollar investment in Scale AI, with Bloomberg reporting that the deal could surpass $10 billion. This would mark the largest external AI investment by Meta, Facebook’s parent company, and rank among the largest funding rounds ever for a private firm.
Scale AI’s Role in AI Development
Scale AI, led by CEO Alexandr Wang, provides critical data labeling services that help companies like Microsoft and OpenAI train their artificial intelligence models. Much of this labeling work is completed by contractors. Notably, the U.S. Department of Labor recently dropped its investigation into allegations that Scale AI was misclassifying and underpaying employees.
The company generated $870 million in revenue last year and anticipates $2 billion in revenue for the current year, according to Bloomberg.
Meta was already an investor in Scale AI’s $1 billion Series F funding round, which valued the company at $13.8 billion. Scale AI also developed Defense Llama, a large language model tailored for military applications, built on Meta’s Llama 3 foundation.
What The Author Thinks
Meta’s planned investment in Scale AI signals a strategic push to deepen its foothold in the artificial intelligence ecosystem. By backing a company pivotal in training AI models, Meta strengthens its position in a highly competitive market driven by data quality and model sophistication. However, the reliance on contract labor for data labeling raises ethical questions that tech giants must address to maintain sustainable growth. Balancing innovation with fair labor practices will be key to Meta’s success in the AI era.
