Data-centric infrastructure to accelerate the development of AI.
Public company, workplace, funding, and market signals
Updated Mar 30, 2026
Scale AI is a privately held AI applications and data-infrastructure company founded in 2016. It supplies high-quality training data, human feedback, model evaluation/red-teaming, and full-stack AI systems for frontier AI labs, enterprises, and governments. As of 2026-08-02, Jason Droege is interim CEO; Francis deSouza has been appointed CEO effective 2026-08-10.
Primary product
Scale Data Engine plus Scale Generative AI Platform: data labeling/annotation, RLHF and expert data, model evaluation, and tools to build, deploy, monitor, and improve enterprise and government AI agents.
Founded
2016
Headquarters
San Francisco, California, United States
Team size
1,000+ employees (Scale's official site); third-party profiles variously estimate approximately 1,200 to 3,000–4,000, with contractor counts not comparable.
Industry
Software development / artificial intelligence
Sub-industry
AI data infrastructure, data labeling, model evaluation, RLHF, and enterprise/government applied AI
Offices
Business model
Stage
Late-stage private company; strategic minority investment by Meta
Total raised
$15.9B
Latest round
Series G / Meta strategic investment for 49% non-voting stake · Jun 2025
Latest amount
$14.3B
Jun 2025 · Meta
May 2024 · Accel
Apr 2021 · Dragoneer Investment Group
Dec 2020 · Tiger Global Management
Aug 2019 · Founders Fund
Aug 2018 · Index Ventures
May 2017 · Y Combinator
Jul 2016 · Arena Ventures
Jan 2016 · Y Combinator
Leadership
Interim Chief Executive Officer (through transition)
Chief Executive Officer-designate, effective 2026-08-10
Founder and Chairman of the Board; former CEO
SVP, Data, Engineering, Technology & Systems
SVP of Engineering
Founders
Lucy Guo
Co-founder
Investors
Scale describes its culture through six Credos: Earn Customer Love, Team Flow, Quality is Our Cheat Code, Find the 20%, Write the Market, and Three Moves Ahead. It emphasizes mission-driven, engineering-led work, customer impact, quality, speed, and a flexible environment; the actual office/remote mix is not clearly stated in the official evidence reviewed.
Visa sponsorship
Yes
Compensation
Public job and labor-filing signals indicate competitive U.S. technical compensation and historical H-1B sponsorship. Exact ranges vary by role and location; third-party compensation estimates are not treated as company-confirmed.
Benefits
Pricing
Enterprise/custom pricing; public materials direct prospects to request a demo rather than publishing standard prices. Some data products and platform usage may be usage- or project-based.
Differentiators
Technology
Customers
Competitors
Estimated revenue
Approximately $800M–$900M for 2024; Reuters reported about $870M in 2024. 2025 estimates above $2B are third-party/company-reporting signals and should not be treated as audited.
Estimated monthly visits
624.7K
Meta finalized a $14.3B investment for a 49% stake, valuing Scale at approximately $29B; founder Alexandr Wang moved to Meta and Jason Droege became interim CEO. The transaction created customer-neutrality and confidentiality concerns because Meta competes with Scale customers.
SourceReports said Google halted multiple projects, OpenAI was winding down work, and xAI paused some projects after the Meta investment; this was reported customer pullback, not a confirmed company shutdown.
SourceScale reportedly cut approximately 200 full-time employees, about 14% of a roughly 1,400-person workforce, and ended contracts with about 500 contractors while restructuring its GenAI group.
SourceScale appointed Francis deSouza CEO effective August 10, 2026, after more than a year of interim leadership; the transition reflects a post-Meta effort to expand enterprise and government applications.
SourceScale AI · Jul 2026
Scale appointed Francis deSouza CEO effective August 10, 2026, with Jason Droege assisting the transition; the company highlighted BP, Mayo Clinic, and government growth.
Yahoo Finance / Scale AI Canada announcement · Dec 2025
Scale AI announced funding commitments (~$128.5M reported) to support applied AI projects across Canada, described in company releases and covered by media [Yahoo Finance](https://finance.yahoo.com/news/record-breaking-scale-ai-funding-160000182.html).
Business Insider · Jul 2025
Scale reportedly laid off about 200 employees and 500 contractors during a GenAI restructuring shortly after the Meta investment.
Business Insider · Jun 2025
The report described Google project cancellations, OpenAI wind-down activity, and xAI pauses after Meta became a major Scale shareholder.
Reuters · Jun 2025
Meta agreed to a multi‑billion dollar investment in Scale AI (reported around $14.8B), acquiring a 49% non‑voting stake; the deal valued Scale AI at roughly $29B and prompted commentary about access to data, customer relationships, and competition [Reuters](https://www.reuters.com/sustainability/boards-policy-regulation/metas-148-billion-scale-ai-deal-latest-test-ai-partnerships-2025-06-13).
224 jobs at Scale AI