Scale AI founder Wang announces exit for Meta part of $14 billion dealNEW!MenuselectSearch quotes, news & videosMenuScale AI's Alexandr Wang confirms departure for Meta as part of $14.3 billion dealPublished Thu, Jun 12 202511:59 PM EDTUpdated Fri, Jun 13 20252:07 PM EDTKey PointsMeta is investing $14.3 billion into Scale AI, landing the startup's CEO Alexandr Wang to help the company's artificial intelligence efforts.In a memo to employees that he posted on X on Thursday, Wang said he'll be staying on as a director, "continuing to support Scale's mission and long-term vision."Jason Droege, Scale AI's strategy chief, will be taking over as CEO. In this articleFollow your favorite stocksCREATE FREE ACCOUNTAlexandr Wang, CEO of ScaleAI speaks on CNBC's Squawk Box outside the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland on Jan. 23, 2025.Gerry Miller | CNBCScale AI founder Alexandr Wang in a memo on Thursday that he's leaving for Meta, confirming reports from earlier in the week about his departure and a large investment from the social networking company. is pumping $14.3 billion into Scale AI as part of the deal, and will have a 49% stake in the artificial intelligence startup, but will not have any voting power, a Scale AI spokesperson said."As you've probably gathered from recent news, opportunities of this magnitude often come at a cost," Wang wrote in the memo that he shared on X. "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 , the chief strategy officer, to the CEO role. Droege was previously a venture partner at Benchmark and an vice president. A small number of Scale AI employees will also agreement, Wang wrote.A Meta spokesperson confirmed that the company has finalized its "strategic partnership and investment in Scale AI.""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," the spokesperson said. "We will share more about this effort and the great people joining this team in the coming weeks."Meta's big bet on Wang fits into CEO plans to bolster his company's AI efforts amid fierce competition from OpenAI and Google parent Alphabet. Zuckerberg has made AI his company's , but has grown increasingly frustrated with his team, particularly as Meta's latest version of its flagship received a tepid , CNBC reported earlier this week.Although Zuckerberg has traditionally placed long-standing employees into high-ranking positions, he decided that the outsider Wang would be better suited to oversee AI initiatives deemed crucial for the company.Scale AI counts a number of Meta rivals as customers, including , and OpenAI. Meta is one of Scale AI's biggest clients.The Scale AI spokesperson said that Meta's investment and hiring of Wang will not impact the startup's customers, and that Meta will not be privy to any of its business information or data.Don’t miss these insights from CNBC PROWATCH: .watch nowVIDEO3:4903:49Meta's one of AI's leaders not a laggard, says Futurum Group CEO Daniel NewmanNews TipsGot a confidential news tip? We want to hear from you.CNBC NewslettersSign up for free newsletters and get more CNBC delivered to your inboxGet this delivered to your inbox, and more info about our products and services.Advertise With Us© 2025 CNBC LLC. All Rights Reserved. , What Scale offered to AI developers was a more tailored version of Amazon’s Mechanical Turk, which had long been a go-to service for matching freelance workers with temporary online jobs. More recently, the growing commercialization of AI large language models — the technology behind OpenAI’s ChatGPT, Google’s Gemini and Meta’s Llama , Meta is investing $14.3 billion in the data labeling and model evaluation startup, which gives the social media giant a 49% stake in the company, and is bringing Scale’s founder and former CEO .