Mark Zuckerberg's Meta Reportedly Eyes Rare $10B External Bet With Scale AI: Retail Traders Are All In

Social media giant Meta Platforms, Inc. (META) is reportedly considering plowing billions into artificial intelligence (AI)  technology as the Mark Zuckerberg-led company strives to stay competitive in the red-hot space.

Bloomberg reported, citing people familiar with the matter, that Meta is considering investing more than $10 billion in an AI startup called Scale AI. This would mark one of the biggest private fundings in history.

The report termed the rumored move rare, given that Meta has depended chiefly on in-house research for its AI initiatives. 

San Francisco, California-based Scale AI was co-founded by Alexander Wang in 2016. The company provides data labeling and model evaluation services to develop applications for AI.

Meta and OpenAI are among Scale AI's customers.

Following a funding round in 2024 that included contributions from Meta and Microsoft, Scale AI was valued at $14 billion. Bloomberg reported in April that the company was in talks for a tender offer that would value it at $25 billion. 

The report also said the AI startup was eyeing more than doubling its revenue to $2 billion this year.

The rumored move aligns with the strategy of big techs, which have dug deep into their cash piles to solidify their AI presence. Microsoft has invested over $13 billion in Sam Altman-led OpenAI, while Alphabet and Amazon have also invested billions in Anthropic. 

The report also noted that Meta and Scale AI have a common ground in defense technology. Apart from individual initiatives, both companies have partnered on a program called Defense Llama, a large language model meant for military use.

In late April, while announcing its quarterly results, Meta raised its 2025 capital expenditure estimate to $64 billion-$72 billion from $60 billion-$65 billion, citing increased data center investments to further its AI efforts and higher infrastructure hardware costs.

On Stocktwits, retail sentiment toward the Meta stock was 'bullish' (74/100) by late Sunday, and the message volume was 'high.'

Retail watchers were largely bullish on the rumored Scale AI investment.

Meta stock ended Friday's session up 1.91% at $697.71, off its all-time high of $740.91, which it hit in mid-February. The stock is up about 19% this year.

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