Meta’s substantial investment in Scale AI may be causing some of the startup’s customers to hesitate.
According to Reuters, Google had intended to pay Scale $200 million this year; however, it is currently in discussions with its competitors and intends to sever its relationship.

Microsoft is also purportedly contemplating a retreat, and OpenAI is said to have made a comparable decision months ago.

However, its CFO has stated that the company will continue to collaborate with Scale as one of numerous vendors.

The U.S. government and self-driving car companies are among Scale’s clients.

However, Reuters reports that its most significant clients are generative AI companies that require workers with specialized knowledge who can annotate data to train models.

Google declined to provide a response to the allegation.

TechCrunch was informed by a Scale spokesperson that the company’s business is robust and that it will continue to operate as an independent entity that protects its customers’ data.

However, the spokesperson declined to provide any further commentary regarding the company’s relationship with Google.

According to prior reports, Meta invested $14.3 billion in Scale to acquire a 49% stake in the company.

Alexander Wang, the CEO of Scale, subsequently joined Meta to oversee the company’s endeavors to develop “superintelligence.”