The negotiations started as just one billionaire tech founder talking to another. Meta Platforms CEO Mark Zuckerberg approached Scale AI CEO Alexandr Wang in mid-April about a potentially industry-shaking deal.

Here’s what you need to know about the deal, what its implications may be, and why Wang is of such interest to Zuckerberg’s sprawling digital content company. Wang dropped out of MIT in his freshman year to co-found Scale with social media influencer and engineer Lucy Guo.

Google is reportedly cutting ties with Scale AI after Meta acquired a 49% stake in the data-labeling startup, according to Benzinga. Google was previously Scale AI’s largest customer, and it is reportedly planning to end its relationship with the company.

Scale AI co-founder Alexandr Wang is such an enthusiastic networker that his former roommate — OpenAI Chief Executive Officer Sam Altman — once jokingly told him to tone it down a bit.Fortunately for Wang,

The parent company of Facebook is investing $14.3 billion in Scale AI, which offers a platform and training data for developing AI models.

It’s easily the most expensive hire of all time, dwarfing the billions that Google spent to rehire Noam Shazeer and his core team from Character.AI (a deal Zuckerberg passed on). “Opportunities of this magnitude often come at a cost,” Wang wrote in his note to employees this week. “In this instance, that cost is my departure.”

Meta Platforms is reportedly acquiring a 49% stake in Scale AI, a leading data labeling company that powers many AI applications, as CEO Mark Zuckerberg seeks to strengthen Meta’s position in the competitive artificial intelligence landscape.

Meta is betting big on a new superintelligence lab, luring talent with massive paychecks and bringing in Scale AI’s Alexandr Wang—but insiders warn that deep internal dysfunction could sabotage the effort.