Data selling is AI's hottest business: Mercor hits $2B run rate, Surge AI $1.4B
lukas_m_ziegler · x · 2026-10-11
Selling AI training data has become the internet's hottest business. A roundup of run rates:
- MicroAGI: $100M ARR in 6 months
- Mercor: $2B run rate (from $1M 24 months ago)
- Surge AI: $1.4B run rate
- Handshake AI: $1.1B run rate in 16 months
- Scale AI: $2B run rate
The driver: labs have infinite GPUs but no proprietary data left to scrape, forcing them to pay premium prices for human and expert data.
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