Analysis-Meta's $14.8 billion Scale AI deal latest test of AI partnerships

FILE PHOTO: Morning commute traffic streams past the Meta sign outside the headquarters of Facebook parent company Meta Platforms Inc in Mountain View, California, U.S. November 9, 2022. REUTERS/Peter DaSilva/File Photo

(Reuters) -Facebook owner Meta's $14.8 billion investment in Scale AI and hiring of the data-labeling startup's CEO will test how the Trump administration views so-called acquihire deals, which some have criticizedas an attempt to evade regulatory scrutiny.

The deal, announced on Thursday, was Meta's second-largest investment to date. It gives the owner of Facebook a 49% nonvoting stake in Scale AI, which uses gig workers to manually label data and includes among its customers Meta competitors Microsoft and ChatGPT creator OpenAI.