Scale AI Raises $1 Billion in Series F, Valuation Soars to $13.8 Billion

Scale AI, the data-labeling startup known for its innovative approach to training machine learning models, has made headlines by raising a staggering $1 billion in its latest Series F funding round. This infusion of capital has doubled the company’s valuation to $13.8 billion, showcasing the surging investor interest in AI-related technologies.

A High-Profile Funding Round

The Series F round attracted a slew of big-name investors, including Amazon and Meta, indicating the strong confidence major corporations have in Scale AI’s potential. This funding round was a mix of primary and secondary funding and saw participation from institutional and corporate investors such as Cisco, Intel, AMD, and ServiceNow.

Leading the round was Accel, which has been a long-time supporter of Scale AI, having led the company’s Series A round and participated in subsequent funding rounds. This continued support from Accel highlights the consistency and trust the company has built over the years.

Scale AI’s Growth Journey

Since its inception in 2016, Scale AI has raised approximately $600 million before this round. Notably, in 2021, the company secured a $325 million Series E funding that valued it at around $7 billion. Despite facing challenges, including laying off 20% of its staff last year, Scale AI has demonstrated remarkable resilience and growth, as evidenced by its current valuation.

The Importance of Data in AI

Scale AI’s success underscores the critical role of data in the development of artificial intelligence. The company specializes in managing and annotating large volumes of data, an essential process for training AI systems. By combining machine learning with “human-in-the-loop” oversight, Scale AI ensures the data it provides is both accurate and useful.

With clients ranging from Microsoft and Toyota to the U.S. Department of Defense and OpenAI, Scale AI’s services are in high demand across various industries. Their ability to provide specialized data, whether for autonomous vehicles or natural language processing (NLP), makes them a key player in the AI ecosystem.

Vision for the Future

Scale AI’s CEO and co-founder, Alexandr Wang, emphasized the company’s vision for a future of data abundance. He stated:

Data abundance is not the default — it’s a choice. It requires bringing together the best minds in engineering, operations, and AI.

Wang’s vision includes the development of frontier data, always pushing the boundaries of AI capabilities towards complex reasoning, agents, and multimodality. With this new influx of capital, Scale AI aims to accelerate the creation of AI-ready data and continue fueling the advancement of large language models (LLMs).