Meta has made its boldest move yet in the AI arms race, announcing a near $14.3 billion investment for a 49% stake in Scale AI, a leading data infrastructure company. As part of the agreement, Scale AI CEO Alexandr Wang will leave his company to head Meta’s newly created Superintelligence Lab, according to reports from The New York Times.
The lab’s mission? To build general-purpose AI models that can rival or exceed the capabilities of GPT‑4o, Gemini 1.5, and Claude 3.5.
Meta’s AI efforts—anchored by its open-source Llama models—have fallen behind industry leaders in both performance and market adoption. While competitors like OpenAI and Google have rolled out multimodal assistants with real-time reasoning, Meta’s own AI ecosystem has struggled to generate similar momentum.
CEO Mark Zuckerberg, under pressure to catch up, saw Scale AI as a unique opportunity: a company with best-in-class training data pipelines, access to high-performance compute, and a CEO already respected in AI infrastructure circles.
“This deal is not just about catching up—it’s about reshaping our AI trajectory,” a Meta spokesperson told Axios AI+.
At just 28, Alexandr Wang is among the most influential young figures in AI. After founding Scale AI at 19, he turned it into a core supplier of labeled data for OpenAI, Microsoft, and the U.S. Department of Defense. Wang will now report directly to Zuckerberg and lead a new unit staffed by roughly 50 handpicked engineers and researchers from Meta, Scale, and other elite institutions.
Wang’s departure comes with some tension. According to Time (DR 90), rival firms like OpenAI and Google are scaling back their contracts with Scale AI, citing potential conflicts of interest.
Scale AI has long been the backbone of the industry’s data operations, providing the human-labeled datasets essential to train large language models. With Meta’s near-majority stake, that backbone could now become vertically integrated into Meta’s ecosystem, sparking competitive unease across Silicon Valley.
While Meta insists the stake is non-controlling, regulatory experts suggest the acquisition may still come under FTC and DOJ scrutiny. Scale’s data contracts, particularly in national security and commercial AI, are likely to be reviewed for privacy and market fairness.
Zuckerberg’s new Superintelligence Lab will reportedly focus on:
Sources tell Fast Company that the lab is not part of Meta’s FAIR research group but rather an elite, product-focused R&D unit aimed at enterprise-grade AI deployment.
Meta’s stock rose 2.1% following the announcement, reflecting cautious optimism on Wall Street. Analysts at Morgan Stanley and Bernstein called the move “a calculated leap, not a wild gamble,” citing Meta’s unmatched ability to scale AI products across Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp.
However, some investors remain wary of the long-term cost, with AI R&D now expected to exceed $55 billion annually across Meta’s business units.
Meta’s deal with Scale AI isn’t just another acquisition—it’s a strategic reboot. By securing top talent, proprietary data channels, and deep technical expertise, Meta is signaling that it no longer intends to trail in the AI race. Whether it can close the gap—or leap ahead—will depend on how fast its new lab can deliver.
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