Scale AI
Private
AI Data Infrastructure
Founded 2016San Francisco, CA~1,500 employees
- Valuation
- $29B(Meta 49% stake, 2025)
- Total Funding
- $15.9B(across 9 rounds, 62 investors)
- Revenue
- $870M 2024;~$2B ARR 2025
- Profit Status
- Profitable on some segments; pivoting to defense
- Employees
- ~1,500
About Scale AI
Scale AI provides data labeling and synthetic data infrastructure that powers AI training for leading frontier labs and enterprises. The 'picks and shovels' of the AI gold rush.
Company History
Founded 2016 by 19-year-old Alexandr Wang. Grew from data labeling to full AI infrastructure. Meta invested $14.3B for 49% stake (2025) - valuing Scale at $29B. $2B ARR by 2025. Pivoted heavily to defense after Google/OpenAI/xAI paused engagements over data confidentiality concerns. DoD Thunderforge prime contract (Anduril + Microsoft). Pentagon $500M CDAO contract boost (May 2026).
Funding Rounds
3 rounds| Date | Round | Amount | Investors |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | Series E | $325M | Tiger Global, Coatue |
| 2024 | Series F | $1B | Amazon, Meta, NVIDIA |
| 2025 | Meta Strategic | $14.3B | Meta (49% stake) |
Products & Services
4- Scale Data Engine
- Scale Donovan (Defense)
- Spellbook
- RLHF Platform
People & ecosystem
Key People
- Alexandr Wang (CEO)
- Lucy Guo (co-founder)
Key Investors
- Meta (49% stake, $14.3B)
- Tiger Global
- Coatue
- Founders Fund
- Index Ventures
Competitive Landscape
- Appen
- Surge AI
- Labelbox
- DataAnnotation