On Tuesday, Scale AI said it has raised $1 billion in a late-stage funding round. The round was led by venture capital firm Accel and included participation from big tech companies such as Nvidia, Amazon and Meta. This new financing puts Scale AI at an estimated worth of nearly $14 billion.
Companies in the technology industry are rapidly integrating artificial intelligence into their products and services. Despite other sectors seeing little investment activity, startups like Scale AI that assist with AI are thriving.
Scale AI, which was founded in 2016, supplies large volumes of accurately labeled data needed to train sophisticated systems like OpenAI’s ChatGPT. The company also works with clients such as Microsoft and Morgan Stanley, as well as fellow AI firms OpenAI and Cohere to improve their training sets.
San Francisco-based Scale AI’s recent funding round is just one of many major deals struck in the field of artificial intelligence. In Q1 alone this year, PitchBook reported that AI startups brought in $19.15 billion in venture capital funding — more than the total amount seen during all of last year ($16.36 billion).
The fresh funds will be used by Scale AI to create more data capabilities for its customers, including the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD), and contribute toward a red teaming event being overseen by the White House. The latter initiative is part of broader efforts by the administration to collaborate with private sector players on ways to ensure safe innovation in artificial intelligence.
Other investors involved in this latest round included Coatue, Tiger Global Management, Intel Capital and AMD Ventures; while back in 2021 Scale had raised $325 million via a series E funding round that valued it at around $7.3 billion.
Source: reuters
