Meta Bets Big: $10 Billion on Scale AI Shakes Foundations of AI

Meta Platforms is reportedly in talks to invest more than $10 billion in artificial intelligence startup Scale AI, according to reports from June 8 and 9, 2025. This move could transform the landscape of AI infrastructure and technology competition in Asia.

Tech giant Meta Platforms, the parent company of Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp, is at the center of a story that could redefine the future of artificial intelligence (AI): reports emerged this weekend that the company is in advanced talks to make a monumental investment of over $10 billion in Scale AI. Scale AI is a startup specializing in a critical component of AI development: high-quality data labeling, which is essential for training machine learning models. This potential investment, which would be Meta’s largest external investment in AI to date, marks a significant shift from its traditional focus on in-house research and development. The news comes as Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg has declared AI the company’s top priority, with plans to invest up to $65 billion in related projects by 2025 and the goal of turning its Llama AI model into an industry standard.

Scale AI, valued at nearly $14 billion in a spring 2024 funding round in which Meta already participated, and seeking a valuation of up to $25 billion in a potential public offering in March 2025, counts among its clients titans such as Microsoft, OpenAI, General Motors, and Asian giants like Samsung and Toyota. The company also has operations in Asia, such as its subsidiary Smart Ecosystem Philippines, which operates the Remotasks platform.

The magnitude of the investment Meta is reportedly considering in Scale AI underscores a growing trend: the battle for control of AI's fundamental infrastructure. In this new "technological cold war," access to and control over vast, high-quality labeled data sets is becoming as crucial as dominance in semiconductor manufacturing has been. AI models, especially the generative ones that power tools like ChatGPT, are data-hungry, and their accuracy depends directly on the quality of the data they’re trained on. By securing such a significant stake in Scale AI, Meta would not only be looking to accelerate its own AI initiatives—from refining its vision of the metaverse to improving ad targeting and content moderation—but also to secure a strategic advantage, reducing its dependence on competitors that also offer data labeling tools and potentially creating a “barrier to entry” for rivals. This move comes amid massive investments from other US tech giants: Microsoft has invested over $13 billion in OpenAI, while Google and Amazon have backed competing startup Anthropic.

"In the era of AI, infrastructure is the new battlefield. Scale AI's value lies in its fundamental role in training machine learning models," noted an AInvest analyst.

A strengthened partnership between Meta and Scale AI would have direct repercussions for the Asian tech landscape. On the one hand, it could intensify competition for Asian companies specializing in AI data services. The financial strength and global reach of a Scale AI backed massively by Meta could make it difficult for smaller local players to compete. However, this mega-investment also validates the enormous market potential for AI data services, which could, paradoxically, spur further investment and innovation within the Asian market itself. It could attract more venture capital and talent to the AI ​​data sector in Asia, and companies in the region could find opportunities to partner or serve specific market niches. The existence of Remotasks in the Philippines already demonstrates a model for tapping into Asian talent pools in this field.

This trend of consolidating power by US tech giants in key aspects of the AI ​​value chain also has a geopolitical dimension. As the United States and China engage in a "semiconductor war" and compete for leadership in AI, control over data infrastructure becomes another front. Asian countries seeking to develop sovereign AI capabilities and avoid overdependence on foreign technology platforms will closely watch these moves. The "AI war" is not only commercial but also strategic. In this context, other relevant sector news includes Qualcomm's recent acquisition of Alphawave for $2.4 billion to strengthen its AI portfolio, and statements by Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang, who, during his participation in London Tech Week on June 9, was expected to announce investments in training the AI ​​workforce in the United Kingdom. Nvidia, with its B30 chip, also exposes China's strategic dependence on certain components.

The following table summarizes some of the major recent investments in core AI technologies:

The potential Meta-Scale AI deal, not yet officially confirmed by the companies, is a clear indicator that the race for supremacy in artificial intelligence is increasingly being fought over control of its most basic components.