What differs
- Offering: Scale’s Generative AI Data Engine lists RLHF, prompt-response generation, red teaming, and evaluation; Surge offers custom training data, off-the-shelf datasets, RL environments, and benchmarks and evals, and calls itself a post-training partner.
- Published security: Scale lists SOC 2 Type II, ISO/IEC 27001:2022, FedRAMP High, and DoD IL4; we found no certification or trust center on Surge’s site (its /security path returned 404).
- Off-the-shelf data: Surge sells off-the-shelf training data and publishes vendor-reported post-training runs on it; Scale’s pages checked focus on custom data.
- Ownership: Meta holds a minority of Scale’s equity after a June 2025 investment; Scale describes itself as independent. Surge is privately held.
Who each tends to fit
Public-sector or audit-heavy buyers may start with Scale’s published authorizations. Teams that want to test off-the-shelf post-training data before custom work may look at Surge. Review ownership and security documentation in diligence for both.
Last checked: . No winner declared.