Google plans to snap ties with Scale AI after Meta's "significant" investment

Google plans to snap ties with Scale AI after Meta's "significant" investment

16 Jun 2025, 06:20 PM

Google had planned to invest about $200 million in Scale AI, but Meta's investment in the data-labeling startup may have given it cold feet.

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Google, the largest customer of Scale AI, plans to end ties with the data-labeling startup, the Reuters reported citing unidentified people.

This comes after rival Mark Zuckerberg's Meta made a "significant" investment in Scale AI, valuing the startup at $29 billion. Scale AI's co-founder and CEO Alexandr Wang is also joining Meta and help the tech giant with its AI work.

Google had planned to invest about $200 million in Scale AI, the report said, but Meta's investment in the data-labeling startup may have given it cold feet.

Other major tech companies such as Microsoft, Elon Musk's xAI and OpenAI have relied on Scale AI to produce and label data that’s used to train models and ramp up their AI capabilities overall.

Microsoft and xAI have also decided to cut ties with Scale AI, the report said while OpenAI decided to pull back several months ago even as OpenAI's CFO Sarah Friar said at a conference earlier this month that it will continue to work with Scale AI.

However, continuing to work with Scale AI could potentially expose Google, Microsoft, xAI and OpenAI's plans and strategies to Meta that now has a significant investment in the startup.

Prior to the current significant investment form Meta, Scale AI had raised $1 billion in Series F funding round from institutional and corporate investors including Meta and Amazon in May last year.

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