Meta's $14.3 billion investment in Scale AI is showing signs of strain, with cracks forming in their partnership just months after the deal was announced. The social media giant brought on Scale AI CEO Alexandr Wang and several top executives to run Meta Superintelligence Labs (MSL), but researchers in TBD Labs reportedly view Scale AI's data as low-quality and prefer working with competitors Mercor and Surge.
Meta's deals with third-party data vendors suggest the company isn't putting all its eggs in Scale AI, despite the massive investment. This is in contrast to Scale AI, which heavily relied on Meta's investment, but lost major clients OpenAI and Google shortly after the deal was announced. Scale AI subsequently laid off 200 employees in its data labeling division.
The partnership has also led to internal chaos within Meta's AI unit, with new talent from OpenAI and Scale AI struggling to navigate the company's bureaucracy. Longtime members of Meta's GenAI team have seen their roles limited, and some have departed. Ruben Mayer, Scale AI's former Senior Vice President of GenAI Product and Operations, left Meta after just two months.
Meta's spokesperson disputed concerns over Scale AI's data quality, while Scale AI directed TechCrunch to its initial announcement of Meta's investment, citing an expansion of their commercial relationship. Despite the investment, Meta isn't exclusively relying on Scale AI for data labeling work and is instead working with multiple vendors, including Mercor and Surge.
