Meta’s big investment in scale AI could lead to some of its startup customers being suspended.
Reuters reports that Google had planned to pay $200 million this year, but is now planning to talk to competitors and cut ties with startups. Microsoft is also reportedly about to withdraw, and although Openai appears to have made a similar decision a few months ago, the CFO says it will continue to work with Scale as one of many vendors.
Scale’s customers include self-driving car companies and the US government, but Reuters says its biggest clients are generative AI companies seeking access to workers with expertise to annotate data from their training models.
A Scale spokesman declined to comment on its relationship with Google, but told TechCrunch that Scale’s business remains strong and will continue to operate as an independent company that protects customer data.
Previous reports suggest that Meta has invested $14.3 billion in a 49% stake in the company, with scale CEO Alexandr Wang joining Meta and leading the company’s efforts to develop “Superintelligence.”