Alexandr Wang spent Scale AI’s first years walking into pitch meetings with great numbers and real revenue and getting rejected anyway.
Not one of the VCs across the table had ever trained a model. Data, in his words, was still “very unsexy.” A decade later, the same investors who passed on him write think pieces about how data is the biggest opportunity in AI.
Now Wang runs Meta’s Superintelligence Labs.
Before we get into his full conversation with Garry Tan at Y Combinator’s Startup School 2026, here is Scale AI’s funding journey:
2017, Series A:$4.5M raised at an undisclosed valuation, led by Accel.2018, Series B:$18M raised at an undisclosed valuation, led by Index Ventures, with Accel and Y Combinator participating.2019, Series C:$100M raised at a valuation of more than $1B, led by Founders Fund, with Accel, Coatue, Index Ventures, Spark Capital, and Thrive Capital.2020, Series D:$155M raised at a valuation of more than $3.5B, led by Tiger Global.2021, Series E:$325M raised at a $7.3B valuation, co-led by Dragoneer, Greenoaks Capital, and Tiger Global.2024, Series F:$1B raised at a $13.8B valuation, led by Accel, with Amazon, Meta, Nvidia, and a long list of strategic and institutional investors.**2025, Meta deal:**Meta invested $14.3B for a 49% stake, valuing Scale AI at more than $29B. Scale remained independent, while Wang joined Meta to lead its superintelligence push.
We went through his full conversation with Garry Tan and pulled out the parts worth stealing: the first-principles test that told him data was the wedge before anyone else saw it, the conviction playbook that explains why the smartest investors in the room were wrong for years, the exact agentic-loop mechanics that now beat a team of 100 engineers.
Bonus: at the end of the newsletter, you will also find Scale AI’s Series C pitch deck!
Inside you will find:
How Scale Really Started
Conviction Before Consensus
David vs Goliath Is Over: How AI Agents Turn Your Startup Into a Mecha-Goliath
How Wang Rebuilt a Frontier Lab in 9 Months
Vision Beats Intelligence: Why Ambition Is the Scarce Resource Now
The Agentic Loop That Beat 100 Engineers
What to Steal From Wang
Bonus: Scale AI Series C Pitch Deck
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