Meta’s Making It Rain $10B on Scale AI
Meta’s potential $10 billion+ investment in Scale AI signals a bold new phase in Zuckerberg’s AI ambitions, with major implications for national defense, data infrastructure, and the generative AI arms race.

Meta Platforms Inc. is preparing to make its boldest external bet yet in the artificial intelligence arms race. According to sources close to the matter, Meta is in advanced discussions to inject more than $10 billion into Scale AI, one of Silicon Valley’s fastest-rising startups and a linchpin in the generative AI data infrastructure revolution. If finalized, the investment would rank among the largest private funding deals in tech history—eclipsing even the landmark AI investments made by Microsoft, Amazon, and Google.
Scale AI, co-founded by Alexandr Wang in 2016, has become the unseen engine powering many of today’s AI marvels. The company specializes in data labeling, a critical process in which raw data—images, text, video—is cleaned, tagged, and structured for machine-learning models. As AI’s appetite for clean data explodes, Scale AI has positioned itself as the go-to provider. Its client list reads like a who’s who of tech’s elite: Microsoft, OpenAI, and even Meta itself, which has previously invested smaller amounts in the company. Scale was last valued at $14 billion in 2024, but more recent discussions around a tender offer suggest that number could leap to $25 billion.
For Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, this is more than just another high-profile check. It’s a strategic escalation in his push to make Meta a global AI powerhouse. Zuckerberg has made clear that AI is no longer an experiment for the company—it’s the main event. In January, he declared that Meta would spend up to $65 billion this year on AI initiatives. The goal? To cement Meta’s Llama large language model (LLM) as the global standard, particularly as its chatbot gains traction across Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp—already touching a billion users per month.
Unlike Microsoft, Amazon, and Google, Meta doesn’t own a cloud platform to leverage in its AI partnerships. This makes its investment in Scale even more significant. While rivals often package cash with discounted compute credits, Meta’s contribution is likely to be pure capital—or strategic integration of its AI stack into Scale’s defense and enterprise offerings. That distinction reflects Meta’s unique positioning in the AI landscape: platform-focused, LLM-centric, and increasingly aligned with national defense priorities.
