Scale AI founder Alexandr Wang is leaving the startup for Meta. Wang confirmed the move in a memo to employees on Thursday. The news follows reports earlier this week about his departure and a major Meta investment.
Meta is investing $14.3 billion into Scale AI and taking a 49% stake, but won’t have any voting power, a Scale AI spokesperson said.
Wang wrote to staff on X: 
"As you’ve probably gathered from recent news, opportunities of this magnitude often come at a cost,"
"In this instance, that cost is my departure. It has been the absolute greatest pleasure of my life to serve as your CEO."
Scale AI is promoting chief strategy officer Jason Droege to CEO. Droege was a Benchmark venture partner and Uber VP.
A few Scale AI employees will move to Meta as part of the deal. Meta confirmed the finalized partnership and investment.
A Meta spokesperson said:
"As part of this, we will deepen the work we do together producing data for AI models and Alexandr Wang will join Meta to work on our superintelligence efforts."
"We will share more about this effort and the great people joining this team in the coming weeks."
The move fits CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s push to boost Meta’s AI efforts amid fierce competition from OpenAI and Google. Zuckerberg has made AI Meta’s top priority in 2025 but has grown frustrated with internal teams, especially after a lukewarm reaction to the latest Llama AI models.
Zuckerberg often promotes from within but believes Wang, an outsider, is better suited to lead Meta’s AI projects.
Scale AI serves rivals like Google, Microsoft, and OpenAI. Meta is one of its biggest clients.
Scale AI insists Meta’s stake and Wang’s move won’t affect its customer relationships or expose business info.
