Meta’s AI Expansion: Failed Perplexity Talks Precede Scale AI Investment

Meta explored acquiring Perplexity AI before ultimately investing in Scale AI, according to people familiar with the matter. The discussions with Perplexity, recently valued at $14 billion, collapsed without reaching financial terms. Both companies declined to comment on the aborted deal.

The outreach reflects CEO Mark Zuckerberg's aggressive push to bolster Meta's AI capabilities amid competition from OpenAI and Alphabet. The social media giant has been actively recruiting top AI talent and pursuing strategic investments to close the gap in this rapidly evolving sector.

Meta's $49% stake in Scale AI, valued at billions, forms part of this strategy. While Meta gains no voting rights, Scale's founder Alexandr Wang and key team members will join Meta to work on AI projects directly. The company also pursued SAFE Superintelligence earlier this year, a $32 billion-valued research firm.