Online Reporter
Meta Platforms is in talks to make a multibillion-dollar investment into artificial intelligence startup Scale AI, according to people familiar with the matter.
The financing could exceed $10 billion in value, some of the people said, making it one of the largest private company funding events of all time.
The terms of the deal are not finalised and could still change, according to the people, who asked not to be identified discussing private information.
Representatives for Scale and Meta declined to comment.
Scale AI, whose customers include Microsoft Corp and OpenAI, provides data labelling services to help companies train machine-learning models and has become a key beneficiary of the generative AI boom. The startup was last valued at about $14 billion in 2024, in a funding round that included backing from Meta and Microsoft. Earlier this year, Bloomberg reported that Scale was in talks for a tender offer that would value it at $25 billion.
This would be Meta’s biggest ever external AI investment, and a rare move for the company. The social media giant has before now mostly depended on its in-house research, plus a more open development strategy, to make improvements in its AI technology. Meanwhile, Big Tech peers have invested heavily: Microsoft has put more than $13 billion into OpenAI while both Amazon.com and Alphabet have put billions into rival Anthropic.
Part of those companies’ investments have been through credits to use their computing power. Meta doesn’t have a cloud business, and it’s unclear what format Meta’s investment will take.
Chief executive officer Mark Zuckerberg has made AI Meta’s top priority, and said in January that the company would spend as much as $65 billion on related projects this year. — Bloomberg
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