Google Reportedly Plans to Cut Ties with Scale AI After Meta Deal

The decision, while not surprising, would still result in a blow to Scale’s business.

Google is planning to stop the majority of its work with Scale AI after rival Meta took a 49% stake in Scale and hired its CEO in a deal announced this week, Reuters reported on Friday.

The decision, while not surprising, would still result in a blow to Scale’s business. Google is Scale’s largest customer and had planned to spend $200 million this year on Scale’s data labeling services, Reuters reported. Google is already in talks with Scale’s rivals as it seeks to switch vendors, according to Reuters. After this story was published, a Scale spokesperson declined to comment on the company’s work with Google.

Google likely fears that Meta will have access to their research road map because of its partial ownership of Scale. In recent months, Scale CEO Alexandr Wang had begun to provide advice to Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, who felt Wang provided perspective on Meta’s AI problems from working with other research labs, The Information reported.

Still, OpenAI’s chief financial officer said this week that the ChatGPT maker, a rival to both Meta and Google, plans to continue its work with Scale.