Alexandr Wang leaves Scale AI to join Meta in a $14.3 billion deal, signaling a major shift in AI leadership and corporate strategy in 2025
Alexandr Wang, the founder of Scale AI, informed employees in a memo on Thursday that he is departing for Meta. This announcement confirms allegations from earlier week regarding his departure and a substantial investment from the social networking company.
Meta is investing $14.3 billion in Scale AI as part of the agreement. While Meta will hold a 49% stake in the artificial intelligence startup, it will not have any voting authority, according to a spokesperson for Scale AI.
Wang wrote in the memo that he shared on X, “As you have likely observed from recent news, opportunities of this magnitude frequently require a price.” “In this case, the cost is my departure.” “I have had the most incredible pleasure in my life as your CEO.”
Jason Droege, the chief strategy officer at Scale AI, has been promoted to CEO. Droege was previously a vice president at Uber and a venture associate at Benchmark.
Wang also stated that a limited number of Scale AI employees will also be joining Meta as part of the agreement.
Meta has finalized its “strategic partnership and investment in Scale AI,” according to a spokesperson.
“As part of this, we will enhance our collaborative efforts to generate data for AI models, and Alexandr Wang will join Meta to contribute to our superintelligence endeavors,” the spokesperson stated.
“We will provide additional information regarding this endeavor and the exceptional individuals joining this team in the upcoming weeks.”
Meta’s substantial investment in Wang aligns with CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s objectives to enhance his organization’s AI initiatives in the face of intense competition from OpenAI and Alphabet, which Google owns.
According to a report by CNBC earlier this week, Zuckerberg has designated AI as his organization’s number one priority for 2025.
However, he has become increasingly dissatisfied with his team, particularly in light of the lackluster reception that Meta’s most recent iteration of its signature Llama AI models has received from developers.
Even though Zuckerberg has historically promoted long-standing employees to high-ranking positions, he determined that the outsider Wang would be more suitable to supervise AI initiatives that were considered essential for the company.
Google, Microsoft, and OpenAI are among the Meta rivals that Scale AI considers as customers. Meta is one of Scale AI’s most significant customers.
The spokesperson for Scale AI stated that Meta’s investment and the hiring of Wang will not affect the startup’s customers and that Meta will not have access to any of the startup’s business information or data.
