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Meta Mania: Oakley-Meta Glasses, $14.3B Scale AI Stake, WhatsApp Ads And More
Updated on Tue, Jun 17, 2025
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Meta is at it again.
The social media giant, which also dabbles in the most advanced technology, has made a slew of announcements related to new partnerships, products, and services.
From consumer electronics to ad services to help businesses, Meta has got it all.
So, what’s new with Meta? Let’s explore.
Meta has invested around $14.8 billion in Scale AI, a data-labeling company, taking the AI startup’s valuation to $29 billion.
Through the investment, Meta will acquire a 49% stake in Scale AI.
The deal—which is Meta’s second largest ever, following February 2014’s acquisition of WhatsApp—will also see Scale’s CEO and Founder, Alexandr Wang, will join Meta to work on its AI projects.
“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,” said Meta, without disclosing financial details.
However, Wang will continue to serve as a director on the Scale Board of Directors, while the company’s current Chief Strategy Officer, Jason Droege, will serve as the Interim CEO.
“Scale bridges the gap between human values and technology to help our customers realize AI’s full potential,” said Alexandr Wang, Founder of Scale. “Meta’s investment recognizes Scale’s accomplishments to date and reaffirms that our path forward—like that of AI—is limitless.”
Scale provides industry-leading data-centric AI solutions that accelerate the development of AI applications through data annotation, model evaluation, and other services. It has played a pivotal role in boosting AI development since its inception.
Despite the deal with Meta, Scale will continue to partner with leading AI labs, multinational enterprises, and governments to enhance AI's evolution.
However, the deal may cause other organizations to reconsider their stance.
According to reports, Google plans to cut ties with Scale AI because of the new Meta connection. Google, which is Scale AI’s largest customer, had planned to pay Scale $200 million for human-labeled training data, which is an important component of developing AI models.
As per sources, Google has already held talks with Scale’s rivals.
OpenAI's CFO, Sarah Friar, initially said the company would continue working with Scale AI. However, a spokesperson for the company followed up saying OpenAI has already begun distancing itself from Scale AI, and work will soon stop completely.
“We don't want to ice the ecosystem because acquisitions are going to happen. And if we ice each other out, I think we're actually going to slow the pace of innovation," said OpenAI's CFO, Sarah Friar.
Somewhere in between lies regulatory scrutiny, in the sense that such “acqihire” deals manage to surpass U.S. antitrust inspections based on technicalities, as it’s neither an acquisition, nor a transaction of controlling stake.
However, the size of the deal might draw the attention of the Trump administration and test its response.
This move comes after other recent reveals made by Meta, including a partnership with Anduril for a U.S. Army AR/VR project.
Coming to its bread and butter, Meta is bringing ads to WhatsApp to earn more bread and butter.
This comes in the form of new features in WhatsApp’s Updates tab, which will see the introduction of ads in channel subscriptions, promoted channels, and ads in Status.
In channel subscriptions, users will be able to support their favorite channel by subscribing to receive exclusive updates for a monthly fee. Promoted channels will help users discover new channels that might capture their interest, while channel admins will gain a way to increase their channels’ visibility. Through ads in Status, users can find a new business and get information about promoted products or services.
“We’ve been talking for years about how to build a business on WhatsApp in a way that doesn’t interrupt personal chats, and we believe the Updates tab is the right place to introduce that,” said Meta in a release.
The Updates tab, which is used by 1.5 million people per day globally, is where users discover what's new on WhatsApp, from personal updates from friends to engaging entertainment by content creators.
Meta promises that “Subscriptions, promotions and ads will appear only on the Updates tab, away from your personal chats.” It also said that the features are built in the most privacy-oriented way possible.
Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg has already expressed plans to replace ad agencies with AI.
At the end of April, Meta released Meta AI, a standalone AI app that acts as a personalized AI-assistant, helping users with content creation and image generation, cross-platform integration, voice interaction, and feed explorer, among other features. Get the whole rundown, along with how Meta's Llama API aims to attract AI developers.
Now, Meta has launched a generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) video editing feature that will be accessible across the Meta AI app, as well as the Edits app.
“You’ll now be able to easily edit your short-form videos using a variety of preset AI prompts that can transform your outfit, location, style and more,” said Meta.
The new feature is available in the U.S. and more than a dozen countries around the world. Meta plans to introduce a feature that allows users to edit videos alongside Meta AI with their own text prompts to make them exactly as they imagine them.
One of the biggest revelations coming out of Meta this week is a teaser.
Introducing the Oakley Meta smart glasses.
Well, not exactly “introducing,” as both companies only teased the release of a new product or service or both—slated to launch on June 20, 2025—through a video posted on a new Instagram page under both their names.
Under the name “oakleymeta,” the two companies’ video sports a caption that reads “The next evolution is coming on June 20.”
The video was shared as a status through Mark Zuckerberg’s personal handle, as well as athletes such as Kylian Mbappé (football), Patrick Mahomes (American football), J. R. Smith (basketball—former), Gabriel Medina (surfing), and more.
Given that Oakley is primarily an eyewear brand and Meta already has a line of smart glasses with Ray-Ban, it’s quite obvious that the new product will include smart glasses. However, it could include a series of new features, functions, or services.
Are you excited to try out the Oakley Meta smart glasses? Do you think it will pose a threat to the Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses?
What do you think about the other announcements made by Meta?
Let us know in the comments below!
The social media giant, which also dabbles in the most advanced technology, has made a slew of announcements related to new partnerships, products, and services.
From consumer electronics to ad services to help businesses, Meta has got it all.
So, what’s new with Meta? Let’s explore.
Meta’s $14.8 Billion Scale AI Investment
Meta has invested around $14.8 billion in Scale AI, a data-labeling company, taking the AI startup’s valuation to $29 billion.
Through the investment, Meta will acquire a 49% stake in Scale AI.
The deal—which is Meta’s second largest ever, following February 2014’s acquisition of WhatsApp—will also see Scale’s CEO and Founder, Alexandr Wang, will join Meta to work on its AI projects.
“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,” said Meta, without disclosing financial details.
However, Wang will continue to serve as a director on the Scale Board of Directors, while the company’s current Chief Strategy Officer, Jason Droege, will serve as the Interim CEO.
“Scale bridges the gap between human values and technology to help our customers realize AI’s full potential,” said Alexandr Wang, Founder of Scale. “Meta’s investment recognizes Scale’s accomplishments to date and reaffirms that our path forward—like that of AI—is limitless.”
Scale provides industry-leading data-centric AI solutions that accelerate the development of AI applications through data annotation, model evaluation, and other services. It has played a pivotal role in boosting AI development since its inception.
Despite the deal with Meta, Scale will continue to partner with leading AI labs, multinational enterprises, and governments to enhance AI's evolution.
However, the deal may cause other organizations to reconsider their stance.
According to reports, Google plans to cut ties with Scale AI because of the new Meta connection. Google, which is Scale AI’s largest customer, had planned to pay Scale $200 million for human-labeled training data, which is an important component of developing AI models.
As per sources, Google has already held talks with Scale’s rivals.
OpenAI's CFO, Sarah Friar, initially said the company would continue working with Scale AI. However, a spokesperson for the company followed up saying OpenAI has already begun distancing itself from Scale AI, and work will soon stop completely.
“We don't want to ice the ecosystem because acquisitions are going to happen. And if we ice each other out, I think we're actually going to slow the pace of innovation," said OpenAI's CFO, Sarah Friar.
Somewhere in between lies regulatory scrutiny, in the sense that such “acqihire” deals manage to surpass U.S. antitrust inspections based on technicalities, as it’s neither an acquisition, nor a transaction of controlling stake.
However, the size of the deal might draw the attention of the Trump administration and test its response.
This move comes after other recent reveals made by Meta, including a partnership with Anduril for a U.S. Army AR/VR project.
WhatsApp Ads
Coming to its bread and butter, Meta is bringing ads to WhatsApp to earn more bread and butter.
This comes in the form of new features in WhatsApp’s Updates tab, which will see the introduction of ads in channel subscriptions, promoted channels, and ads in Status.
In channel subscriptions, users will be able to support their favorite channel by subscribing to receive exclusive updates for a monthly fee. Promoted channels will help users discover new channels that might capture their interest, while channel admins will gain a way to increase their channels’ visibility. Through ads in Status, users can find a new business and get information about promoted products or services.
“We’ve been talking for years about how to build a business on WhatsApp in a way that doesn’t interrupt personal chats, and we believe the Updates tab is the right place to introduce that,” said Meta in a release.
The Updates tab, which is used by 1.5 million people per day globally, is where users discover what's new on WhatsApp, from personal updates from friends to engaging entertainment by content creators.
Meta promises that “Subscriptions, promotions and ads will appear only on the Updates tab, away from your personal chats.” It also said that the features are built in the most privacy-oriented way possible.
Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg has already expressed plans to replace ad agencies with AI.
Meta AI Videos
At the end of April, Meta released Meta AI, a standalone AI app that acts as a personalized AI-assistant, helping users with content creation and image generation, cross-platform integration, voice interaction, and feed explorer, among other features. Get the whole rundown, along with how Meta's Llama API aims to attract AI developers.
Now, Meta has launched a generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) video editing feature that will be accessible across the Meta AI app, as well as the Edits app.
“You’ll now be able to easily edit your short-form videos using a variety of preset AI prompts that can transform your outfit, location, style and more,” said Meta.
The new feature is available in the U.S. and more than a dozen countries around the world. Meta plans to introduce a feature that allows users to edit videos alongside Meta AI with their own text prompts to make them exactly as they imagine them.
Oakley Meta Smart Glasses
One of the biggest revelations coming out of Meta this week is a teaser.
Introducing the Oakley Meta smart glasses.
Well, not exactly “introducing,” as both companies only teased the release of a new product or service or both—slated to launch on June 20, 2025—through a video posted on a new Instagram page under both their names.
Under the name “oakleymeta,” the two companies’ video sports a caption that reads “The next evolution is coming on June 20.”
The video was shared as a status through Mark Zuckerberg’s personal handle, as well as athletes such as Kylian Mbappé (football), Patrick Mahomes (American football), J. R. Smith (basketball—former), Gabriel Medina (surfing), and more.
Given that Oakley is primarily an eyewear brand and Meta already has a line of smart glasses with Ray-Ban, it’s quite obvious that the new product will include smart glasses. However, it could include a series of new features, functions, or services.
Are you excited to try out the Oakley Meta smart glasses? Do you think it will pose a threat to the Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses?
What do you think about the other announcements made by Meta?
Let us know in the comments below!
First published on Tue, Jun 17, 2025
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