Meta has made a significant investment in Scale AI, which might be causing hesitation among some of the startup’s clients. According to Reuters, Google had intended to pay Scale $200 million this year but is now considering shifting its business to competitors and potentially severing its relationship. Microsoft is also reportedly reconsidering its partnership, and OpenAI allegedly made a similar decision months ago, although its CFO stated that the company will still collaborate with Scale as one of several vendors. Scale AI serves clients such as self-driving car companies and the U.S. government, but its primary clientele are generative AI firms that require workers with specialized expertise to annotate data for model training. A Scale spokesperson declined to comment on the company’s relationship with Google but assured TechCrunch that Scale’s business remains robust and it will continue operating independently while protecting customer data.
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