- Alexandr Wang, as soon as the youngest self-made billionaire on this planet, has agreed to affix Meta to work on AI “superintelligence,” leaving the startup that made him wealthy after dropping out of MIT.
Alexandr Wang’s Scale AI simply inked a $14.3 billion funding cope with Meta, which transitions the 28-year-old out of his CEO place on the startup he co-founded with fellow billionaire and estranged enterprise companion Lucy Guo.
Wang introduced Thursday on X that he’s leaving Scale AI to affix Meta as a part of an settlement that offers CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s tech firm a 49% stake within the startup. Wang turned the world’s youngest self-made billionaire at age 24, simply 5 years after dropping out of faculty and creating the San Francisco-based firm. Now, his estimated internet price is $3.6 billion.
“I began this firm proper out of freshman yr of MIT and by no means appeared again,” Wang wrote in his memo to Scale AI staff on Thursday. “I wouldn’t change a minute of it.”
Wang will proceed to function a director on the corporate’s board whereas engaged on “superintelligence efforts” for Meta, a Scale AI spokesperson advised CNBC, however didn’t elaborate on specifics. In his observe, Wang stated he would poach a number of “Scalien” staff to take with him to Meta, however didn’t identify them.
Within the interim, Scale’s board and Wang determined to nominate chief technique officer Jason Droege as a short lived CEO. Previous to becoming a member of Scale AI in August 2024, Droege was a enterprise companion at Benchmark and an Uber vp, based on his LinkedIn.
For Wang, he attributes a few of his success all through the years to being a relative newcomer to the AI business.
“I consider there’s an enormous premium to naivete,” Wang advised Daniel Levine on a 2023 Youtube podcast. “Approaching industries with a completely clean slate and and not using a tremendous grain understanding of what makes issues onerous is definitely a part of what lets you accomplish issues.”
Wang additionally inspired startup founders to be extra “open-minded,” one thing he and his colleagues at Scale AI championed from the the corporate’s early days.
Zuckerberg has reportedly made AI a prime precedence for 2025. The funding in Wang’s experience could also be a part of the reported meeting of a 50-person superintelligence AI workforce at Meta meant to achieve floor on rivals like Google and OpenAI.
Meta’s latest Llama 4 AI fashions obtained a lukewarm response from builders, CNBC reported in Could.
Wang will convey together with him expertise working with Meta rivals, together with Google, Microsoft, and OpenAI. Meta is considered one of Scale AI’s greatest shoppers.
In his memo, Wang wrote he was hesitant to comply with the supply to go away Scale AI at first, calling the choice “unimaginable” after elevating $1 billion final yr from buyers together with Amazon and Meta at a valuation of $13.8 billion.
“However as I frolicked actually contemplating it, I noticed this was a deeply distinctive second, not only for me, however for Scale as properly,” Wang wrote.
This deal greater than doubles Scale AI’s valuation to $29 billion.
This story was initially featured on Fortune.com
