Meta's investment in Scale AI is likely to cause concern among the startup's customers. According to Reuters, Google intended to pay Scale $200 million in 2025, but is now in talks with other companies and preparing to end the collaboration.
Microsoft is also considering a similar move. According to sources, OpenAI made the decision to reduce its engagement even earlier, although its CFO said the company would continue to use Scale AI services as one of several partners.
Scale's key customers are companies working on generative AI that need experts to annotate the data needed to train models. Customers also include drone manufacturers and US government agencies.
Google declined to comment. Scale AI also did not comment on its relationship with Google, but a company representative assured that the business remains stable and the company will continue to operate as an independent entity that cares about the confidentiality of customer data.
As a reminder, it was previously reported that Meta invested $14.3 billion in Scale AI for a 49% stake, and its CEO Alexander Wang joined Meta to lead the direction of creating "superintelligence".