Alexandr Wang's Scale AI Eyed by Meta for $10 Bil. Stake
By Reuters | 08 Jun, 2025

The fast-growing data-labeling firm founded in 2019 is becoming an important part of the AI landscape for several tech giants.

Meta Platforms is in talks to make an investment that could exceed $10 billion in artificial intelligence startup Scale AI, Bloomberg News reported on Sunday. 

The terms of the deal were not yet finalized and could still change, the report said, citing people familiar with the matter. 

Scale AI declined to comment and Meta did not immediately respond to Reuters request for comment outside regular business hours. 

Founded in 2016, Scale AI is a data labeling startup backed by tech giants Nvidia, Amazon and Meta.  Operating with a staff of less than 1,000, Scale retains about 100,000 independent contractors to shape data to be used for training AI systems using the large-language model (LLM).

Last valued at nearly $14 billion, Scale AI also provides a platform for researchers to exchange AI-related information, with contributors in more than 9,000 cities and towns.

Founder Alexandr Wang's 14% stake in Scale AI was valued at $2 billion prior to talks with Meta over its new investment.  It has made the 30-year-old the world's youngest self-made billionaire.  Wang's co-founder Lucy Guo, who is no longer working at Scale, is the world's youngest self-made female billionaire, according to Forbes.

(Reporting by Gursimran Kaur in Bengaluru.  Editing by Bernadette Baum, with contribution by Goldsea staff)