Meta in talks to invest $10b in Scale AI
Meta Platforms Inc. is reportedly in advanced discussions to invest over $10 billion in artificial intelligence (AI) startup Scale AI, a potential landmark deal that could rank among the largest private funding rounds in history, according to sources familiar with the matter.
While the deal is not yet finalized and terms could still change, people close to the negotiations suggest the financing would significantly elevate Scale AI’s market standing, potentially valuing the company well above its last reported figure of $14 billion in 2024. At that time, the startup had already received backing from major tech players, including Meta and Microsoft.
A spokesperson for Scale AI declined to comment, and Meta has also declined to issue a formal statement.
If completed, the investment would mark Meta’s most substantial external AI bet to date. The social media giant—owner of Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp—has historically favored in-house AI development and an open-source strategy. This contrasts with rivals like Microsoft, Amazon, and Alphabet (Google’s parent company), who have poured billions into external ventures such as OpenAI and Anthropic.
Unlike these competitors, which operate public cloud services often tied to AI investments via computing credits, Meta does not run a public cloud business. How the investment would be structured—whether through equity, partnerships, or other incentives—remains unclear.
However, CEO Mark Zuckerberg has made Meta’s AI ambitions abundantly clear. In January, he announced plans to spend up to $65 billion on AI initiatives this year alone. Central to these efforts is Meta’s push to make its Llama large language model (LLM) a global industry standard. The company’s AI chatbot, integrated across all Meta platforms, now serves more than one billion users monthly.
Founded in 2016 by CEO Alexandr Wang, Scale AI specializes in data labeling—preparing vast volumes of text, image, and video data used to train machine learning models. As generative AI continues its explosive growth, Scale has positioned itself as a critical player by providing the clean, labeled data that underpins these technologies.
In 2024, the company generated $870 million in revenue and is projecting to more than double that figure to $2 billion by 2025. Its client list includes Microsoft, OpenAI, and U.S. government agencies.
Both Meta and Scale AI are increasingly stepping into the defense technology arena. Meta recently announced a partnership with Anduril Industries Inc., a defense contractor, to co-develop AI-enabled military gear, including an augmented reality helmet.
The collaboration is part of a broader initiative called Defense Llama—a military-grade adaptation of Meta’s Llama model—being developed in conjunction with Scale AI. Scale, for its part, has secured a major contract with the U.S. Department of Defense to advance AI agent technologies, calling it a “significant milestone in military advancement.”
