Scale AI to raise $10B from Meta in one of tech’s largest private funding deals
Scale AI, which counts Microsoft and OpenAI among its customers, specialises in data-labelling services for training AI models.
Meta Platforms is considering investing over $10 billion in Scale AI, making it one of the biggest external AI investments by Facebook's parent company.
According to a Bloomberg report, the deal—potentially one of the largest ever for a private company—is still under negotiation, and the terms could change before it’s finalised.
Scale AI, which counts and among its customers, specialises in data-labelling services for training AI models.
As of last year, the firm was valued at $13.8 billion in a Series F funding round backed by Meta and Microsoft. The report added that Scale was also in discussions for a tender offer that could raise its valuation to $25 billion.
OpenAI buys Jony Ive’s AI hardware startup io Products in $6.4B all-equity deal
In January, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced that the tech giant would invest up to $65 billion in AI-related initiatives this year, making it one of Meta’s top priorities.
Scale AI also built Defense Llama, a large language model designed for military use, on top of Meta’s Llama 3.
Founded in 2016 by CEO Alexandr Wang, Scale AI clocked $870 million in revenue last year and expects sales to more than double to $2 billion this year.
As the AI race intensifies, several larger tech firms are fueling investments in companies advancing AI capabilities.
Last month, ChatGPT-maker OpenAI acquired io Products, the AI hardware startup co-founded by former Apple design chief Jony Ive and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, in a $6.4 billion all-equity deal.
The acquisition is by far OpenAI’s largest to date and signals the AI firm's entry into the AI-enabled consumer hardware market. It already owns 23% of io Products and is paying $5 billion for the remaining stake in the company.
Similarly, Anysphere—the startup behind the AI coding assistant Cursor—is in discussions with several venture capital firms to raise funding at a valuation approaching $10 billion.
Edited by Suman Singh