The data foundry behind frontier models — now roughly half-owned by Meta.
Updated · Analysis by Trace Cohen · scale.com
Meta investment, June 2025
Meta investment, June 2025
~$14.3B, non-voting
~$2B projected for 2025
by Alexandr Wang & Lucy Guo
Set by Meta's June 2025 investment — roughly $14.3B for a ~49% non-voting stake, more than doubling Scale's $13.8B mark from May 2024. Founder-CEO Alexandr Wang left to join Meta (he remains on Scale's board); Scale says it stays independent and Jason Droege leads as CEO (interim appointment, June 2025).
Scale sells the training and evaluation data that frontier AI runs on — human labeling, RLHF (reinforcement learning from human feedback), red-teaming, and model evaluation — to the major AI labs and enterprises, plus a growing government and defense business and an applications arm.
The Meta deal reshaped the company: by taking ~49% and hiring away founder Alexandr Wang, Meta secured priority access to Scale's data pipeline, while rival labs now weigh whether to keep buying from a Meta-aligned vendor. That tension — neutral data foundry vs. Meta affiliate — is the defining question for Scale's next chapter.
After a $13.8B valuation in May 2024, Scale took roughly $14.3B from Meta in June 2025 for a ~49% non-voting stake (~$29B implied valuation). Meta has no voting power and Scale says it operates independently, but the founder's departure to Meta materially changed its positioning.
The largest pure-play data rival, now benefiting from Scale's Meta entanglement.
Expert-marketplace model; Scale sued it over trade secrets.
Enterprise annotation platform.
Talent-driven data and evaluation.
Meta's ~$14B for half of Scale was really an aqui-hire of Alexandr Wang plus an insurance policy on data supply — and it quietly handed Scale's biggest gift to its competitors. Every rival lab now has a reason to move spend to Surge or Mercor rather than fund a Meta affiliate. The lesson for founders: a strategic at 49% can be worth more in cash than control, but it can also strand the rest of your market. Watch whether Scale's revenue holds as labs diversify away.
Meta took a roughly 49% non-voting stake in Scale AI in June 2025 for about $14.3 billion, valuing Scale at around $29 billion. Meta has no voting control, and founder Alexandr Wang left to join Meta while remaining on Scale's board.
Scale sells training and evaluation data to AI labs and enterprises — human labeling, RLHF, red-teaming, and model evaluation — plus government/defense contracts and an applications business.
Scale reported roughly $870 million in revenue for 2024, with 2025 projected to reach about $2 billion (a projection, not audited results).
Analysis by Trace Cohen · @Trace_Cohen · t@nyvp.com. Figures are as of the update date; verify before relying on them.