Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) held discussions with artificial intelligence search startup Perplexity AI about a possible takeover before going forward with its multibillion-dollar investment in Scale AI,

Alex Ratner was trying to get in a few hours of work after putting his kids to bed when news broke that Meta Platforms Inc. planned to invest billions of dollars in data-labeling startup Scale AI. Within minutes,

Meta is making its first major minority investment in an outside company as it tries to catch up to a growing field of artificial intelligence rivals.