OpenAI to Maintain Partnership with Scale AI Despite Meta’s $14.8 Billion Stake

OpenAI has stated it will continue its collaboration with Scale AI even after Meta’s recent $14.8 billion investment in the data-labeling startup. The announcement came from OpenAI’s Chief Financial Officer, Sarah Friar, during the VivaTech conference in Paris, where she emphasized the importance of sustaining open partnerships across the artificial intelligence ecosystem, despite rising competition.

Meta’s acquisition of a 49% stake in Scale AI has drawn industry attention, especially as Scale CEO Alexandr Wang is set to lead Meta’s newly formed Superintelligence unit. This development intensifies the competition between Meta’s LLaMA family of AI models and OpenAI’s ChatGPT, backed by Microsoft. However, OpenAI has chosen not to view Meta’s move as a roadblock to its ongoing collaboration with Scale.

“We don’t want to ice the ecosystem because acquisitions are going to happen,” said Friar. “And if we ice each other out, I think we’re actually going to slow the pace of innovation.”

Friar clarified that OpenAI does not exclusively rely on Scale AI for data sourcing. Instead, the company collaborates with multiple vendors to access the specialized training data required for advancing its language models. “We don’t just buy from Scale,” she noted. “We work with many vendors on the data front.”

As generative AI models evolve, they require increasingly sophisticated input from highly trained professionals. OpenAI’s approach now includes engaging historians, scientists, and academics—many holding doctorate degrees—to ensure its models reflect high levels of domain-specific knowledge and accuracy.

“As models have gotten smarter, you’re going into a place where you need real expertise,” Friar added. “We have academics and experts telling us that they are finding novel things in their space.”

Despite intensifying rivalries, OpenAI’s commitment to working with Scale AI illustrates a broader industry mindset that values collaboration over exclusivity. By maintaining diverse data partnerships, the company aims to sustain innovation and remain competitive in the rapidly advancing AI landscape.