Facebook-parent Meta stunned the Silicon Valley in June this year by announcing a $14.3 billion investment in AI startup — Scale AI. Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg made this investment to primarily onboard Scale AI founder Alexandr Wang and other top executives of the company. This move by Meta trigged an immediate speculation about the Scale AI’s viability, with major clients like OpenAI, Google, and Elon Musk’s xAI reportedly pausing work with the startup. The industry insiders also felt that the company had been effectively acquired, leaving its future uncertain. However, after almost five months after the investment made by Meta, Scale AI CFO Dennis Cinelli has pushed back this speculation. Speaking to CNBC in an interview, Cinelli said that ‘We are a company that signed some of the best deals we have had in the history of our company, just in the last two or three months. We are not a Zombie.”

Emphasising on the fact that Scale AI has signed some of its best deals in recent months, Cinelli told CNBC, “We’re not a zombie company,”. Along with this, he also dismissed the claims that the investment made by Meta was a licensing or acquihire deal. He emphasised that Scale AI is still an independent and completely operational.

Founded in 2016, ScaleAI is known for its data-labelling services and custom AI applications for governments and enterprises. Cinelli told CNBC that both the divisions of the company are growing with revenue “well into the nine figures.” He also revealed that Scale AI recently secured two major contracts with the US Department of Defense which value $99 million and $100 million in August and September, respectively.Scale AI fired about 14% of its workforce in July, soon after Meta made the investment of $14.3 billion, but the company started the process of hiring and has hired 200 new employees. Along with this, the AI company is also working on expansion and is opening new offices in New York, Washington D.C., St. Louis, and London. Despite alls this, the San Francisco still remains the largest hub of the company where it is occupying 180,000 square feet of former Airbnb space.

Moving ahead without Alexandr Wang

The departure of Alexandr Wang from the company was considered to a major loss. He was the world’s youngest self-made billionaire until October but Cinelli insists the “vast majority” of employees remain. Facebook-parent Meta now owns 49% stake in ScaleAIwhich is valued around $29 billion, but the company has no voting power or product integration. “Scale’s data business has grown every month since the Meta deal, and its applications business has doubled in the second half of 2025 compared with the first half. Scale expects the applications unit to be the primary revenue driver for the company in the future,” Cenelli told CNBC.