Meta’s big investment in Scale AI may be giving some of the startup’s customers pause.
Reuters reports that Google had planned to pay Scale $200 million this year but is now having conversations with its competitors and planning to cut ties. Microsoft is also reportedly looking to pull back, and OpenAI supposedly made a similar decision months ago, although its CFO said the company will continue working with Scale as one of many vendors.
Scale’s customers include self-driving car companies and the U.S. government, but Reuters says its biggest clients are generative AI companies seeking access to workers with specialized knowledge who can annotate data to train models.
A Scale spokesperson declined to comment on the company’s relationship with Google, but he told TechCrunch that Scale’s business remains strong, and that it will continue to operate as an independent company that safeguards its customers’ data.
Earlier reports suggest that Meta invested $14.3 billion in Scale for a 49% stake in the company, with Scale CEO Alexandr Wang joining Meta to lead the company’s efforts to develop “superintelligence.”