Meta Invests Heavily in AI Startup Scale AI
Scale AI confirmed on Friday, June 13th, the rumored news: Meta is making a massive investment in the artificial intelligence (AI) startup, amounting to $14.3 billion, according to Associated Press. In exchange, Mark Zuckerberg’s company becomes a minority shareholder, with 49%. Furthermore, CEO Alexandr Wang will lead a new research team dedicated to strengthening Meta in cutting-edge AI, competing with OpenAI, Google, or Anthropic.
At nearly $15 billion, the investment in Scale AI is the second-largest deal in Meta’s history, just behind the acquisition of encrypted messaging service WhatsApp in 2014 for $19 billion.
The structure is unusual: Meta will only own 49% of Scale AI, according to American press. This arrangement appears designed to avoid opposition from competition authorities. These authorities are currently pursuing Meta, accusing it of unduly establishing its dominant position in social networks by acquiring competitors WhatsApp and Instagram. Similarly, Microsoft invested $13 billion in ChatGPT creator OpenAI while remaining a minority shareholder, as did Amazon and Google in its competitor Anthropic, despite investing over $8 billion. Microsoft also absorbed the leaders of the startup Inflection AI, and Google those of Character.ai.
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