Meta to pay nearly $15 billion for Scale AI stake: Report

Meta agreed to take a 49% stake in artificial intelligence startup Scale AI for $14.8 billion, The Information reported.

Meta Platforms has agreed to take a 49% stake in artificial intelligence startup Scale AI for $14.8 billion, The Information reported on Tuesday, citing two people familiar with the matter.

Founded in 2016, Scale AI provides vast amounts of labeled data or curated training data, which is crucial for developing sophisticated tools such as OpenAI's ChatGPT.

The deal, which has not been finalised yet, appears to be beneficial for Scale AI's investors, including Accel, Index Ventures, Founders Fund and Greenoaks Capital, as well as its current and former employees, the report said.

Meta, Scale AI and the startup's investors did not immediately respond to Reuters' requests for comment.

As part of the deal, Scale AI CEO Alexandr Wang will take a top position inside Meta, leading a new "superintelligence" lab, according to the report.

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg has been actively recruiting top AI researchers to boost the company's AI efforts, the report said.

The company is fighting the perception that it may have fallen behind in the AI race after its initial set of Llama 4 large language models released in April fell short of performance expectations.