With Scale AI founder and CEO Alexandr Wang headed to Meta for high-profile role in artificial intelligence, the startup is promoting its strategy head.

Alexandr Wang cofounded Scale AI. He's about to become a very expensive hire at Meta.

As part of the deal, Wang will report directly to Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, the company announced on Thursday. He will lead a new AI lab inside Meta tasked with building “superi

This came right after reports that Meta was making a huge investment in Scale AI—about dollar14.3 billion—which gives Meta a 49% stake in the startup, but without any voting rights or control over its business decisions.

Alexandr Wang co-founded Scale AI at 19. Thanks to the rapid growth of the San Francisco data-labeling company, he was a billionaire at 24. Now 28, he’s a controversial figure, facing wage theft lawsuits from workers and pontificating in Washington about the existential stakes of artificial intelligence.