Scale AI

Quick read

Scale AI, AI data and infrastructure platform, founded 2016, headquartered in San Francisco, CA. Originally built on data annotation, it now spans RLHF, LLM evaluation, physical AI data, and enterprise software for model training and deployment. Meta took a major stake in June 2025 in a $14.3B deal, and the company's defense business is growing fast — the Pentagon contract alone reached $500M in May 2026.

Key facts

Founded

2016

Founders

Alexandr Wang

Employees

6547

Sectors

ai, enterprise

Website

scale.com

Mission

Scale AI's mission is to develop reliable AI systems for the world's most important decisions by providing high-quality training data, RLHF, LLM evaluation, and full-stack enterprise and government AI deployment infrastructure.

Recent activity

• May 2026investment
  The Pentagon awarded Scale AI a $500 million contract with its Chief Digital and Artificial Intelligence Office to analyze data and support decision-making — a fivefold increase from the $100 million deal signed in September 2025. forbes.com
• Apr 2026investment
  Scale AI acquired Illumina Computing Group, its most recent M&A transaction per PitchBook records. pitchbook.com
• Apr 2026press
  CEO Jason Droege discussed Scale AI's $99.5 million U.S. Army contract — to provide datasets and accelerate AI adoption in the military — in an interview with Politico. politico.com
• Mar 2026product
  Scale AI launched Scale Labs, an expanded research division built on its Safety, Evaluation, and Alignment Lab (SEAL). The hub covers evaluation, agentic and multimodal systems, post-training, enterprise deployment, and AI risk and oversight infrastructure. en.wikipedia.org
• Feb 2026product
  Scale AI launched RL Environments, a product to train and evaluate agents in simulated tool-use and computer-use workflows. Nearly half of all new data-training projects now involve reinforcement learning environments. sacra.com
• Jan 2026press
  At Davos, CEO Jason Droege told CNBC that 2025 was Scale's strongest financial year ever, with well over $1B in new business signed, the data business turning profitable, and the applications business more than doubling revenue in the second half of 2025. linkedin.com
• Jun 2025investment
  Meta Platforms agreed to purchase a 49% non-voting stake in Scale AI for $14.8 billion. Scale remains a standalone independent entity. Alexandr Wang moved to a senior role at Meta, and Jason Droege — previously chief strategy officer and a former Uber executive — became CEO. en.wikipedia.org
• May 2026product
  Pentagon boosted Scale AI's defense contract to $500M amid a broader military AI push, with Scale also supporting the US Department of War's Golden Dome program and a new collaboration with BAE Systems. tracxn.com
• Mar 2026product
  Launched Scale Labs, an expanded research division built on its 2023 SEAL initiative, focused on AI model capabilities, post-training evaluation, enterprise deployment, and risk oversight. en.wikipedia.org
• Feb 2026product
  Launched RL Environments, a product to train and evaluate AI agents in simulated tool-use and computer-use workflows. Nearly half of all new data-training projects now involve reinforcement learning environments. sacra.com
• Jun 2025fundraise
  Raised $14.3B from Meta, which acquired a reported 49% stake, valuing Scale AI at roughly $29B+. Total funding reached $15.9B across nine rounds. tracxn.com
• 2025press
  Described 2025 as its strongest financial year: over $1B in new business signed, data business turned profitable, applications business more than doubled revenue in H2 2025, and international public-sector revenue doubled. sacra.com

Key people

Named individuals at the firm. We don't expose direct email or phone — use their LinkedIn for outreach.

• Alexandr Wang · CEO & Founder
  Brief →
• Jason Droege · CEO
• Lucy Guo · Co-founder
• Vijay Karunamurthy · CTO

Sources

• Scale AI - Wikipedia
• Scale AI revenue, valuation & funding | Sacra
• Scale AI - 2026 Company Profile - Tracxn
• Scale AI Funding Rounds - Tracxn
• Scale AI | LinkedIn
• https://www.forbes.com/sites/aliciapark/2026/05/06/pentagon-hands-meta-backed-scale-ai-500-million-contract-5-times-last-years-deal-report-says/
• https://pitchbook.com/profiles/company/163154-17
• https://www.politico.com/newsletters/digital-future-daily/2026/04/24/5-questions-for-jason-droege-00890093
• https://www.linkedin.com/in/winnli/

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Frequently asked