The negotiations started as just one billionaire tech founder talking to another. Meta Platforms CEO Mark Zuckerberg approached Scale AI CEO Alexandr Wang in mid-April about a potentially industry-shaking deal.

Meta Platforms Inc. keeps writing bigger checks in pursuit of its artificial intelligence strategy, and traders keep cheering it on, encouraged that the expensive bets will keep paying off.

Scale AI co-founder Alexandr Wang is such an enthusiastic networker that his former roommate — OpenAI Chief Executive Officer Sam Altman — once jokingly told him to tone it down a bit.

Meta is betting big on a new superintelligence lab, luring talent with massive paychecks and bringing in Scale AI’s Alexandr Wang—but insiders warn that deep internal dysfunction could sabotage the effort.

Google is reportedly cutting ties with Scale AI after Meta acquired a 49% stake in the data-labeling startup, according to Benzinga. Google was previously Scale AI’s largest customer, and it is reportedly planning to end its relationship with the company.

According to the OpenAI chief, the loyalty toward OpenAI may have been due to the belief that the startup got a “really good shot,” or a much better shot at delivering super intelligence, eventually making the company more valuable.

Here’s what you need to know about the deal, what its implications may be, and why Wang is of such interest to Zuckerberg’s sprawling digital content company. Wang dropped out of MIT in his freshman year to co-found Scale with social media influencer and engineer Lucy Guo.

The parent company of Facebook is investing $14.3 billion in Scale AI, which offers a platform and training data for developing AI models.

Meta Platforms is reportedly acquiring a 49% stake in Scale AI, a leading data labeling company that powers many AI applications, as CEO Mark Zuckerberg seeks to strengthen Meta’s position in the competitive artificial intelligence landscape.

It’s easily the most expensive hire of all time, dwarfing the billions that Google spent to rehire Noam Shazeer and his core team from Character.AI (a deal Zuckerberg passed on). “Opportunities of this magnitude often come at a cost,” Wang wrote in his note to employees this week. “In this instance, that cost is my departure.”

Despite the $14.3 billion investment that is shaking up the AI landscape, OpenAI's CFO says the company plans to keep working with Scale AI.