In a bold step toward reshaping the future of artificial intelligence, Meta Platforms Inc. has announced a $14.3 billion investment in AI infrastructure company Scale AI. The strategic partnership, revealed on Thursday, also includes the recruitment of Scale’s co-founder and CEO Alexandr Wang to join Meta’s dedicated “superintelligence” team,  a group focused on developing artificial general intelligence (AGI) capabilities that surpass human-level cognition.

As part of the deal, Meta will acquire a 49% stake in Scale, effectively deepening the collaboration between the two firms while allowing Scale to operate independently. Scale’s valuation now exceeds $29 billion, marking one of the most significant AI-related investments in recent memory.

Wang, who co-founded Scale in 2016 after dropping out of MIT, will transition to Meta alongside a select team of engineers, while maintaining a seat on Scale’s board of directors. Jason Droege, former Chief Strategy Officer at Scale and a seasoned executive with prior roles at Uber Eats and Axon, has been appointed interim CEO.

The partnership reflects Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s intensified focus on AGI, which he refers to as “superintelligence”, and signals a major pivot following the company’s heavy investment in the metaverse just a few years ago. This move places Meta in direct competition with AI frontrunners such as OpenAI, Google, and Microsoft, all of whom have made aggressive talent and technology acquisitions in the race to dominate the next generation of AI.

This strategy is not without precedent. Microsoft recently hired the leadership of startup Inflexion AI, including CEO Mustafa Suleyman. Similarly, Google and Amazon have inked deals with Character.AI and Adept, respectively, securing AI tools and key personnel without full acquisitions.

Scale has played a critical role in the AI ecosystem by providing high-quality data annotation services essential to training advanced machine learning models. Its clients include major automakers like General Motors and Toyota, as well as leading developers of large language models (LLMs) such as OpenAI, Anthropic, and Microsoft.

However, it remains unclear how Meta’s substantial stake will influence Scale’s ability to serve competing AI firms, raising questions about future collaborations in an increasingly competitive field.

Meta has charted a distinct course in AI by open-sourcing its Llama models, making powerful AI tools publicly accessible. Despite this, the company has struggled to match the public engagement seen by rivals like OpenAI’s ChatGPT or Google’s Gemini.

Meta’s Chief AI Scientist Yann LeCun has remained a vocal critic of the current LLM-centric approach to AI. Instead, he advocates for systems capable of reasoning, memory, and planning—traits he believes are essential for achieving true human-level intelligence.

With this partnership, Meta aims to unify its long-term vision with immediate technological leverage, solidifying its ambitions to lead in the development of AGI.

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