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Scale AI

Category: AI Infrastructure

The data infrastructure for AI, providing the high-quality training data and Reinforcement Learning from Human Feedback (RLHF) necessary to power foundation models and autonomous systems. Scale AI was founded in 2016. The company is led by Jason Droege. Based in San Francisco, USA. Team size: 1,200. Total funding raised: ~$2.6B total (all rounds). Latest round: Strategic Investment (.3B, Jun 2025 led by Meta - 49% stake acquired at ~B valuation). Key investors include ["Accel","Founders Fund","Index Ventures","Tiger Global","Meta","Amazon","Nvidia","Dragoneer"].

Founded
2016
Headquarters
San Francisco, USA
Team size
1,200
Total funding
~$2.6B total (all rounds)

Value proposition

Accelerates AI development by providing high-quality, human-verified 'ground truth' data at massive scale, significantly reducing model hallucination and improving performance through expert-led RLHF.

Products and solutions

["Scale GenAI Platform (RLHF, Red Teaming, and Model Evaluation)","Scale Data Engine (High-quality labeling for Vision, NLP, and Audio)","Scale Donovan (AI-powered decision-making platform for Federal/Defense)","Scale Catalog (Data management and curation for enterprise AI)","Scale Forge (Custom data generation and synthetic data services)"]

Unique value

Acts as the 'foundational layer' of the AI stack by combining a global workforce of subject-matter experts with proprietary ML-assisted labeling tools to create a high-velocity data flywheel.

Target customer

Foundation model labs (OpenAI, Anthropic), autonomous vehicle manufacturers, Fortune 500 enterprises, and government/defense agencies.

Industries served

["Generative AI & LLMs","Autonomous Vehicles & Robotics","Government & Defense","E-commerce & Retail","Financial Services","Healthcare"]

Technology advantage

Proprietary quality-assurance algorithms and a massive scale of human-in-the-loop operations that allow for the rapid fine-tuning of Large Language Models (LLMs) with specialized domain expertise (coding, legal, medical).

How they differentiate

Scale AI differentiates through its 'Data Engine' which integrates a massive human-in-the-loop workforce (Remotasks) with proprietary ML-assisted labeling. It is the market leader in Reinforcement Learning from Human Feedback (RLHF), providing the critical human-verified data required to fine-tune Large Language Models (LLMs).

Main competitors

["Labelbox","Snorkel AI","Surge AI","Hive"]

Key partnerships

["Meta (Strategic infrastructure and investment partner)","OpenAI (Data labeling and RLHF provider)","NVIDIA (Integration with AI infrastructure and hardware)","Microsoft & Amazon (Cloud and enterprise AI distribution)","U.S. Department of Defense (AI readiness and data processing)"]

Notable customers

["OpenAI","Meta","Microsoft","Toyota","General Motors","U.S. Department of Defense"]

Major milestones

["Achieved a $13.8 billion valuation in May 2024 following a $1 billion Series F round.","Became the primary data partner for OpenAI to support the development of GPT-4 through RLHF.","Launched 'Scale Donovan,' a specialized AI platform for federal and defense agencies.","Formed strategic infrastructure partnerships with Meta, Amazon, and Nvidia in 2024."]

Growth metrics

Reported an annualized revenue (ARR) of approximately $767 million as of early 2024, representing significant year-over-year growth driven by the generative AI boom.

Market positioning

Dominant category leader in AI data infrastructure and 'Data Foundry' services for foundation model labs and enterprises.

Geographic focus

Headquartered in North America (San Francisco) with a global operational footprint for data labeling across Southeast Asia, Africa, and Europe.

Patents and IP

Holds multiple patents related to automated data annotation, synthetic data generation, and machine learning model evaluation techniques.

About Jason Droege

Jason Droege is the CEO of Scale AI, having assumed the role in June 2025 following a landmark strategic investment from Meta. He is a veteran technology executive best known for founding and leading Uber Eats, which he scaled from an internal concept to a global business generating over $20 billion in annual gross bookings. Prior to Scale AI, he served as a Venture Partner at Benchmark and co-founded Scour, one of the earliest multimedia search engines, alongside Travis Kalanick. He joined Scale AI as Chief Strategy Officer in 2024 before being appointed CEO.

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