Data-labeling firm Scale AI confirmed on Friday that it has received a "significant" investment from Meta that values the startup at $29 billion.

Meta has struck a $15 billion deal for a 49% stake in Scale AI, a fast-growing data-labelling startup led by 28-year-old CEO Alexandr Wang. The move puts Wang—once the world’s youngest self-made billionaire—at the helm of Meta’s new superintelligence research unit.

Alexandr Wang cofounded Scale AI. He's about to become a very expensive hire at Meta.

With Scale AI founder and CEO Alexandr Wang headed to Meta for high-profile role in artificial intelligence, the startup is promoting its strategy head.

As part of the deal, Wang will report directly to Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, the company announced on Thursday. He will lead a new AI lab inside Meta tasked with building “superi

This came right after reports that Meta was making a huge investment in Scale AI—about dollar14.3 billion—which gives Meta a 49% stake in the startup, but without any voting rights or control over its business decisions.

Alexandr Wang co-founded Scale AI at 19. Thanks to the rapid growth of the San Francisco data-labeling company, he was a billionaire at 24. Now 28, he’s a controversial figure, facing wage theft lawsuits from workers and pontificating in Washington about the existential stakes of artificial intelligence.