Meta makes strategic investment in Scale AI | TahawulTech.com
Facebook-owner Meta has invested in Scale AI in a deal that brings in CEO, Alexandr Wang, to play a role in the tech giant’s AI strategy.Meta will take a 49% stake for $14.3 billion, according to sources familiar with the matter.“We will deepen the work we do together producing data for AI models and Alexandr Wang will join Meta to work on our superintelligence efforts”, Meta said in a statement.
The main driver for Meta’s substantial investment in Scale was to secure Wang to lead its new superintelligence unit, according to a separate source briefed on the discussions.Meta, once recognised as a leader in open-source AI models, has suffered from staff departures and has postponed the launches of new open-source AI models that could rival competitors like Google, OpenAI, and China’s DeepSeek.By poaching Wang, who does not come from a research background but has built a major AI business, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg is betting that Meta’s AI efforts can be turned around by an adept business leader more in the mould of Altman than the research scientists at the helm of most competing labs.
Scale said the deal values it at $29 billion and that its chief strategy officer, Jason Droege, will serve as its interim CEO. It’s unclear if this deal will come under any regulatory scrutiny. Meta has been sued by the U.S. Federal Trade Commission, which alleges it illegally acquired Instagram and WhatsApp to stifle competition.
Source: Reuters Image Credit: Stock Image/Meta
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