Meta’s $14.8 billion move to acquire a 49 percent stake in Scale AI has sent ripples across the artificial intelligence ecosystem, as the data labeling startup becomes a pivotal asset in the race for advanced AI.
Meta’s AI Strategy
Meta is aggressively pursuing the deployment of artificial intelligence across its business to improve user engagement, advertising performance, content creation, and business communications. In Q1-2025, Meta’s strategic AI investments are delivering tangible results across its social media platforms — Facebook, Instagram, Threads, WhatsApp, and Messenger.
Smarter Advertising and AI Creative Tools
Meta is enhancing ad performance with AI-driven recommendation models, particularly for Reels. A new model under testing has already increased conversion rates by 5 percent, while the use of AI-powered creative tools by advertisers grew by 30 percent in the past quarter. These tools help brands automatically generate personalized ad creatives at scale, improving both efficiency and ROI.
Better and More Interactive User Experiences
AI is also transforming how users experience content. Improved recommendation algorithms led to notable increases in engagement — 7 percent more time spent on Facebook, 6 percent on Instagram, and a striking 35 percent on Threads, which now has over 350 million monthly active users. Meta is not only enhancing existing content formats but is also investing in AI-generated and interactive content. The long-term goal is to evolve beyond passive video consumption to dynamic, responsive content that users can engage with directly in their feeds.
AI-Powered Business Messaging
Meta is positioning messaging as the next big pillar of its business. With WhatsApp exceeding 3 billion monthly active users and Messenger and Instagram handling massive message volumes, AI is set to unlock monetization at scale. In markets like Thailand and Vietnam, where messaging-based commerce is already thriving, AI will enable similar models to succeed in higher-cost labor markets. Meta envisions a future where every business operates an AI agent for customer service and sales, fully integrated into its platforms.
Scaling Meta AI as a Personal Assistant
Meta AI — the company’s general-purpose personal assistant — now reaches nearly a billion users across its apps. This year, the focus is on making Meta AI more personalized, with natural voice conversations and contextual understanding. A newly launched standalone Meta AI app lets users interact based on their activity across Reels and other content, with a social feed to showcase creative uses. Meta sees this as a foundational step toward AI companions that integrate into daily life — from smartphones to future AR glasses.
OpenAI to continue collaboration with Scale AI
Despite the high-profile deal, OpenAI confirmed that it plans to continue its collaboration with Scale AI — a key supplier of high-quality, curated training data used to build models like ChatGPT.
Speaking at the VivaTech conference in Paris, OpenAI CFO Sarah Friar emphasized that innovation in AI hinges on ecosystem openness rather than exclusivity. “We don’t want to ice the ecosystem because acquisitions are going to happen,” Friar noted. “If we ice each other out, I think we’re actually going to slow the pace of innovation.”
While Meta gains access to Scale AI’s data infrastructure and talent — including its CEO Alexandr Wang, who will now lead Meta’s new superintelligence unit — OpenAI remains confident in its diversified data strategy. “We don’t just buy from Scale,” Friar said. “We work with many vendors on the data front.”
Questions
The deal comes at a time when advanced AI systems increasingly rely on highly specialized training data sourced from domain experts, including scientists and historians. As model capabilities grow, so too does the need for curated inputs — a service Scale AI has mastered.
Meta’s strategic investment values Scale AI at $29 billion, underscoring how vital labeled data has become in the competition between AI giants like OpenAI, Meta, and others backed by tech heavyweights such as Microsoft, Reuters news report said. The partnership dynamic among vendors and platforms will be crucial as AI development moves deeper into specialized and general intelligence domains.
Meta’s deals
Meta has pursued several high-profile acquisitions over the years, targeting emerging technologies and platforms aligned with its broader vision of social connection and immersive experiences. The company’s largest deal was the $19 billion acquisition of WhatsApp in 2014, aimed at strengthening its presence in mobile messaging.
Earlier, in 2014, Meta bought Oculus VR for $2 billion to tap into the virtual reality space. Instagram was acquired for $1 billion in 2012 to expand Meta’s mobile photo and video-sharing capabilities. The 2020 acquisition of Kustomer, valued at $1 billion, added a CRM platform to Meta’s portfolio but was later spun out in 2023.
CTRL‑Labs, focused on neural interface technology, was acquired in 2019 in a deal estimated between $500 million and $1 billion. In 2014, Meta acquired video ad platform LiveRail for between $400 million and $500 million. An attempted $400 million acquisition of Giphy in 2020 was eventually abandoned.
Meta’s AI strategy is multifaceted: boosting monetization, deepening user engagement, powering business communication, and building a long-term personal AI platform. By embedding AI at every level — from infrastructure to interfaces — Meta is not just keeping pace in the AI race, but aiming to reshape how people interact with digital platforms.
Rajani Baburajan
