June 13 (UPI) — Tech giant Meta is investing more than $14 billion to acquire a 49% stake in artificial intelligence firm Scale AI, the San Francisco-based company’s CEO confirmed on X.

“As you’ve probably gathered from recent news, opportunities of this magnitude often come at a cost. In this instance, that cost is my departure. It has been the absolute greatest pleasure of my life to serve as you CEO,” co-founder Alexandr Wang wrote on X earlier this week.

Scale Chief Strategy Officer will take over as chief executive, while Wang will move to Meta as part of the deal, which is reportedly worth $14.3 billion.

“As to what’s next for me, I will be leaving Scale to join Meta to work on Meta’s AI efforts along with a few other Scaliens. While it is bittersweet to depart as CEO, I would never leave Scale behind. I’ll stay on as a director on the Board, continuing to support Scale’s mission and long-term vision,” the outgoing CEO wrote on X.

Wang helped co-found Scale AI in 2016.

Meta also confirmed the transaction, which values the data labeling and model evaluation AI company at $29 billion.

“Meta has finalized our strategic partnership and investment in Scale AI. As part of this, we will deepen the work we do together producing data for AI models and Alexandr Wang will join Meta to work on our superintelligence efforts. We will share more about this effort and the great people joining this team in the coming weeks,” Meta said in a statement to TechCrunch.

Meta will not have voting rights, despite its 49% stake in Scale, NBC News reported.

Last year, Scale raised $1 billion from investors, giving the company a $13.8 billion valuation at the time.

Scale has previously provided its training data to Meta, as well as other competitors in the AI space like OpenAI, Microsoft and Google.

Earlier this year, the U.S. Department of Defense awarded the tech firm a multi-million-dollar contract for one of its flagship military programs.

The company’s shares remained unchanged on Friday, trading at $18.50.