Meta splurges $14.3 billion on strategic investment in Scale AI and poaches its founder, analysts point out it exposes "technology anxiety"

According to Zhitong Finance APP, Meta Platforms (META.US) has completed a strategic investment of $14.3 billion in artificial intelligence data service provider Scale AI and appointed the latter's founder to join its core AI team. This unusual transaction reflects the social media giant's accelerated layout in the AI sector.

According to the transaction details disclosed by Meta on Thursday, the tech giant will hold 49% of Scale's non-voting shares, corresponding to a valuation of over $29 billion. At the core of the deal, 28-year-old Scale co-founder Alexander Wang will take a key position in Meta's "Super Intelligence" department, focusing on the development of artificial general intelligence (AGI), which is seen as the ultimate form of AI, while retaining a seat on Scale's board. Meta's official statement emphasized that this collaboration will deepen the synergy between the two parties in the field of AI training data generation.

Behind this collaboration between the tech giant and the data service provider lies Meta's urgency in the AI arms race. Despite CEO Mark Zuckerberg spending hundreds of billions this year to expand AI infrastructure, the market response to the Llama 4 large model launched in April has been lukewarm, prompting the leader to personally recruit top talent at the Silicon Valley headquarters. Reports indicate that Zuckerberg has recently held secret meetings with AI scientists at his California mansion and even restructured office space to place the new team nearby, offering high salaries to poach talent from Google, Sesami AI, and other institutions.

Unlike conventional acquisitions, Meta's choice of a strategic investment model is similar to the operations of giants like Amazon (AMZN.US) and Microsoft (MSFT.US) — avoiding antitrust scrutiny while quickly acquiring key resources. Notably, Scale's main business is not the currently popular large model development, but rather providing data labeling services for clients like Meta and OpenAI, as well as undertaking customized AI projects for the government. This differentiated cooperation path may help Meta build a moat in the AI training data field while leveraging Alexander Wang's network in Washington to expand its defense technology landscape.

Market observers have had mixed reactions. Shweta Kanjirath, an analyst at Wolfe Research, pointed out that Meta's aggressive investment exposes its technological anxiety, stating, "When tech giants need to spend billions to lock in data service providers, it indicates shortcomings in their internal R&D." However, transaction data confirms Scale's strong momentum: the company, founded in 2016, is expected to achieve $2 billion in revenue in 2024, doubling its valuation from last year's $1.4 billion, with interim CEO Jason Droge promising to maintain business independence.

How this transaction will ultimately reshape the AI industry landscape remains to be seen, but it is certain that in the ultimate competition for artificial general intelligence, data elements are becoming a more critical battleground than algorithms