Even with Meta Platforms taking a 49% stake, Scale AI’s new interim CEO wants you to know the company still operates independently. Jason Droege, who stepped into the CEO role in mid-June, clarified that Meta will not receive any special treatment following its recent US$14.3 billion investment in the data-labelling firm.
“There’s no preferential access that they have to anything,” Droege said in a candid interview on July 2. “They are a customer, and we will support them like we do our other customers, that’s the extent of the relationship.”
Meta has been a customer of Scale AI since 2019, but Droege stressed that the tech giant’s new position as a major shareholder will not influence its business decisions.
Alexandr Wang departs Scale AI for Meta’s AI team
Alexandr Wang, the company’s co-founder and former CEO, recently left to head up a new superintelligence division at Meta, in line with Meta’s efforts to speed up its artificial intelligence development. While Wang continues to hold a seat on Scale AI’s board, Meta will not gain any additional board representation.
Droege assured that customer privacy and data protection remain core principles. “We have elaborate procedures to ensure the privacy and security of our customers – their IP, their data – and that it does not make its way across our customer base,” he added.
Only a small number of Scale’s staff—fewer than a dozen out of 1,500 employees—followed Wang to Meta, further underscoring that the majority of the team remains with Scale.
Business expansion beyond data labelling
Scale AI is known for helping tech firms label and annotate data used to train AI models. It brought in around US$870 million in revenue in 2024. Now, according to earlier Bloomberg reports, the company expects to nearly double that number, targeting US$2 billion in revenue for 2025.
But with the data-labelling sector getting more crowded—with players like Turing, Invisible Technologies, Labelbox, and even Uber entering the space—Scale is now looking to grow in new directions. Droege revealed that the company’s newer app-based services are already earning nine-figure revenues. These include tailored solutions for large healthcare, education, and telecommunications clients.
Importantly, Scale also works with the US government and plans to support a broad range of AI models, not just Meta’s Llama models. “We continue to serve many kinds of AI models and applications,” Droege said, aiming to reassure existing and potential customers who may feel uncertain about Meta’s involvement.
Despite these efforts, some major customers such as OpenAI and Google have reportedly moved away from Scale AI, concerned that Meta’s influence could compromise the privacy of their AI development work.
Droege, previously Scale’s chief strategy officer, is a seasoned tech executive. He’s held key roles at Benchmark, a venture capital firm, and Uber, where he helped launch Uber Eats. Now, he’s leading Scale through rapid growth and rising competition.
The challenge ahead for Scale is clear: continue to be the go-to partner for data labelling and AI application services, while proving that it can stay neutral, even with one of the world’s biggest tech firms as a major investor.
