Meta is making an investment in artificial intelligence company Scale and recruiting its CEO Alexandr Wang to join a team developing "superintelligence" at the tech giant.

It’s easily the most expensive hire of all time, dwarfing the billions that Google spent to rehire Noam Shazeer and his core team from Character.AI (a deal Zuckerberg passed on). “Opportunities of this magnitude often come at a cost,” Wang wrote in his note to employees this week. “In this instance, that cost is my departure.”

The parent company of Facebook is investing $14.3 billion in Scale AI, which offers a platform and training data for developing AI models.

Meta Platform Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg’s efforts to shape up the company’s artificial-intelligence ambitions took a step forward with an investment in ScaleAI and the poaching of its founder. Meta’s investment values the data-labeling AI startup at over $29 billion,

Scale AI has helped major tech companies such as OpenAI, Google, and Microsoft prepare the data they use to train AI models. View on euronews

In a strategic move, Meta invests $14.3 billion in Scale AI, taking a 49 per cent stake in the data-labelling startup. Scale's CEO Alexandr Wang will play a key role in shaping Meta's AI future, particularly in superintelligence.

Meta invests $14.3B in Scale AI to fuel a new superintelligence lab—gaining infrastructure and leadership, but raising doubts about Scale’s future.

Meta is betting big on a new superintelligence lab, luring talent with massive paychecks and bringing in Scale AI’s Alexandr Wang—but insiders warn that deep internal dysfunction could sabotage the effort.

Meta Platforms is reportedly acquiring a 49% stake in Scale AI, a leading data labeling company that powers many AI applications, as CEO Mark Zuckerberg seeks to strengthen Meta’s position in the competitive artificial intelligence landscape.

Zuckerberg is throwing pro-athlete-level salaries at top AI researchers. But for many, prestige, trust, and tribal loyalties matter more.

Alexandr Wang dropped out of MIT to co-found Scale and was quickly lauded as one of Silicon Valley's most promising entrepreneurs, raising funding from blue-chip venture capital firms and achieving billionaire status in his 20s.