Meta held talks to acquire AI startup Runway before its massive Scale AI investment, CNBC confirms.
Runway, known for AI video-generation tools and recently named to CNBC’s Disruptor 50, entered early discussions with Meta. The talks fizzled and didn’t move forward, sources said.
Bloomberg first reported the deal talks. Meta declined to comment. 
Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg has been aggressively building AI muscle. June saw Meta invest $14.3 billion into Scale AI, snagging a 49% stake and hiring founder Alexandr Wang plus some Scale staff.
Meta also approached AI companies Safe Superintelligence and Perplexity AI about acquisitions this year. Though it didn’t buy Superintelligence, its CEO Daniel Gross and ex-GitHub CEO Nat Friedman are joining Meta’s AI team under Wang’s leadership.
Meta’s push shows no signs of slowing.
Mark Zuckerberg stated:
Meta spoke with artificial intelligence startup Runway about a potential takeover ahead of its multibillion-dollar investment in Scale AI, CNBC confirmed Monday.
The deal talks between Meta and Runway did not progress far and dissolved, according to a person familiar with the matter who asked not to be named due to the confidential nature of the discussions.
Meta declined to comment.
