This, some have criticized as an attempt to evade regulatory scrutiny.

The deal, announced on Thursday, was Meta's second-largest . It gives the owner of Facebook a 49% nonvoting stake in Scale AI, which uses gig workers to manually label data and includes among its customers Meta competitors Microsoft and ChatGPT creator OpenAI.

Unlike an acquisition or a transaction that would give Meta a controlling stake, the deal does not require a review by United States antitrust regulators. However, they could probe the deal if they believe it was structured to avoid those requirements or harm competition.

The deal appeared to be structured to avoid potential pitfalls, such as cutting off competitors' access to Scale's services or giving Meta an inside view into rivals' operations, though Reuters exclusively reported on Friday that Alphabet's Google has decided to sever ties with Scale in light of Meta's stake, and other customers are looking at taking a step back.

--Reuters--