Meta Tried to Buy Runway Before $14B Scale AI Bet
June 24 - Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) held early talks with artificial intelligence startup Runway about a possible acquisition earlier this year, according to a Monday report confirmed by CNBC.
Runway, known for its AI-driven video tools, was also recently featured on the Disruptor 50 list. However, discussions between the two companies did not move beyond the initial stage and ultimately fell through, a person familiar with the matter told the outlet.
Warning! GuruFocus has detected 4 Warning Sign with META.
The approach came before Meta committed $14.3 billion to Scale AI in June. That deal gave Meta a 49% stake in the company, and it brought on Scale AI founder Alexandr Wang and several team members to work on Meta's internal AI products.
Meta has also held similar acquisition talks with Safe Superintelligence and Perplexity AI in recent months. Although those efforts didn't result in full takeovers, some executives from those firmsincluding Safe Superintelligence CEO Daniel Gross and former GitHub chief Nat Friedmanare now joining Meta's AI unit.
Meta declined to comment on the reported Runway discussions.
This string of outreach underlines Meta's broader strategy to scale its AI capabilities across product areas as competition intensifies among tech giants.
This shows Meta's AI expansion playbook relies as much on partnerships and personnel shifts as it does on major investments.
This article first appeared on GuruFocus.
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