The value of the fundraising could exceed $10 billion, some said, making it one of the biggest private company fundraising events of all time.
According to those who were asked not to be identified to discuss personal information, the terms of the transaction have not been fixed and may change.
Representatives of the scale did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Meta declined to comment.
Scale AI, including Microsoft Corp. and Openai, has provided customers with data labeling services to help businesses train machine learning models, becoming a key beneficiary of the generation AI boom. The startup was last valued at around $14 billion in 2024 and was a funding round that included support from Meta and Microsoft. Earlier this year, Bloomberg reported that it was in discussions on a tender offer that would cherish it at a scale of $25 billion.
This is Meta's biggest external AI investment in history and a rare move for the company. The social media giant has previously relied on more open development strategies to improve AI technology, mainly in addition to in-house research. Meanwhile, major high-tech piers have invested heavily. Microsoft has put more than $13 billion into Openai, while Amazon.com Inc. and Alphabet Inc. have put billions into rival humanity.
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Part of these companies' investments came through credits using computing power. Meta does not have a cloud business. It is unclear what form of Meta's investment is. Chief Executive Officer Mark Zuckerberg set the top priority for the AI meta, saying in January the company would spend $65 billion on related projects this year.
The company's push includes efforts to make llamas a global industry standard. Meta's AI chatbot (already available on Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp) is used by 1 billion people per month.
Co-founded in 2016 by CEO Alexandr Wang, Scale is growing rapidly. Last year, the startup generated $870 million in revenue, and is expected to more than double the revenue in 2025.
Scale plays a key role in making AI data available to businesses. Because AI is as good as the data that goes into it, Scale can be organized using contract workers' scads and tagged images, text and other data for use in AI training.
Scale and meta share the interest in defense technology. Last week, Meta announced a new partnership with defense contractor Andrill Industries, Inc., developing products for the US military, including AI-powered helmets with virtual and augmented reality features. META also grants approval for US government agencies and defense contractors to use the AI model.
The company has already partnered with a program scale called Defense Lama, a version of Meta's major llama language model aimed at military use.
Scale is increasingly working with the US government to develop AI for defensive purposes. Earlier this year, the startup said it had won a contract with the Department of Defense to tackle AI agent technology. The company called the contract “an important milestone in military progress.”
