A gigantic takeover in the tech market. Will Zuckerberg be able to repeat his earlier successes?

Meta Group has signed a preliminary agreement with existing shareholders that will lead to the acquisition of 49 percent of shares in ScaleAI for $14.8 billion in cash.

It is a provider of technologies for collecting, selecting, positioning and storing data in order to prepare, evaluate and then implement artificial intelligence-based models.

The company has been operating since 2016, mainly in the US market, and its current clients include Microsoft and OpenAI. For Meta, the main goal of this transaction is to use the experience gained in creating the foundations of superintelligence.

Meta has not yet had its own solutions for building superintelligence based on artificial intelligence and decided to solve these delays by acquiring products and, in particular, an experienced team.

The deal will have an unusual structure . Meta will pay cash directly to existing ScaleAI shareholders while also entrusting current CEO Alexander Wang with managing a new research lab within the group.

Last year, ScaleAI was valued at $13.8 billion, and now it’s $29 billion . Shareholders include investment funds including Index Ventures, Founders Fund, Greenoals Capital, and former and current employees.

It is worth recalling that Mark Zuckerberg previously made several acquisitions that initially seemed controversial, especially in terms of price.

Meta may finance this acquisition from its first-quarter profit.

Meta bought Instagram for $1 billion a few years ago, then acquired WhatsApp for $19 billion. Many experts believed that the valuations were lower each time, but it's hard to imagine Mark Zuckerberg's social empire without these two companies.

In Q1, Meta had consolidated revenues of USD 42.3 billion, which means a year-on-year increase of 16% and net profit slightly exceeding USD 16.6 billion (+35%).