# Alexandr Wang: Building Scale AI, Transforming Work with Agents & Competing With China

**Author:** Y Combinator
**Type:** Video
**URL:** https://www.ycombinator.com/library/MV-alexandr-wang-building-scale-ai-transforming-work-with-agents-competing-with-china
**YouTube ID:** 5noIKN8t69U

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Alexandr Wang started Scale AI to help machine learning teams label data faster.

It started as a simple API for human labor, but behind the scenes, he was tackling a much bigger problem: how to turn
messy, real-world data into something AI could learn from.   
  
Today, that early idea powers a multi-hundred-million-dollar engine behind America's AI infrastructure—fueling
everything from Fortune 500 workflows to real-time military planning.

Just last week, Meta agreed to invest over $14 billion in Scale AI, valuing the company at $29 billion.

Alexandr joined us on the Lightcone to share how Scale evolved from a scrappy YC startup into the backbone of some of
the world's most advanced AI systems, how he thinks about competition with Chinese AI labs, and what it takes to build
infrastructure that shapes the frontier.

