Alexandr Wang leaves Scale AI to join Meta in $14.3B deal and lead Zuckerberg’s AI ambitions

Alexandr Wang, founder and CEO of Scale AI, is stepping down to join Meta, confirming rumors that had been swirling all week. In a memo to employees on Thursday, Wang said he’s leaving the company he built to take on a new role focused on Meta’s AI efforts.

The move follows a massive $14.3 billion investment from Meta into Scale AI, giving the social giant a 49% stake in the company. Still, Meta won’t have any voting power, according to a spokesperson from Scale.

In a memo he shared on X, Wang sadi:

“As you’ve probably gathered from recent news, opportunities of this magnitude often come at a cost. In this instance, that cost is my departure. It has been the absolute greatest pleasure of my life to serve as your CEO.”

Wang won’t be the only one making the leap. A small number of Scale AI employees will be joining Meta as part of the deal.

To fill the leadership gap, Scale AI is promoting its chief strategy officer, Jason Droege, to CEO. Droege, who previously served as a vice president at Uber and was a venture partner at Benchmark, will now be leading one of the most watched startups in the AI space, CNBC reported.

Meta Buys 49% of Scale AI in $14.3B Deal—CEO Alexandr Wang Quits to Lead Meta’s AI Future

Meta confirmed the move, calling it a “strategic partnership and investment in Scale AI.” A spokesperson added: “As part of this, we will deepen the work we do together producing data for AI models and Alexandr Wang will join Meta to work on our superintelligence efforts. We will share more about this effort and the great people joining this team in the coming weeks.”

The decision to bring Wang on board speaks to how serious Mark Zuckerberg is about pushing Meta’s AI ambitions forward. After a lukewarm response to its latest Llama models, frustration has reportedly been building inside Meta, especially from Zuckerberg himself. Unlike past efforts where long-tenured insiders were handed the reins, this time, Meta is betting on an outsider to steer its most important initiative.

Wang’s move is a twist for a company like Scale AI, which has counted Meta rivals—Google, Microsoft, and OpenAI—among its customers. Meta is one of its biggest clients. The company says the investment and Wang’s departure won’t affect its client relationships, and Meta won’t have access to any proprietary business information or data.

Scale AI was founded in 2016 by CEO Alexandr Wang and Lucy Guo, The startup has established its reputation as a pivotal player in the AI landscape, with a focus on the critical aspect of providing training data for AI applications. Wang’s entrepreneurial journey, which began at the age of 19 while he was a student at MIT, has propelled him to the ranks of the youngest self-made billionaires globally.

Wang, who dropped out of MIT to launch Scale AI in 2016, has built one of the most influential startups in the AI space. Scale works with tech giants like OpenAI, Google, and Microsoft to prep the massive datasets used to train modern AI models. Meta is already one of its biggest customers. Now, with Wang stepping in to lead a new AI lab at Meta, the relationship is getting a lot deeper.

For Scale AI, this marks a major shift. For Meta, it’s a high-stakes play to get back in the race.