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The AI “data factory” behind OpenAI and Anthropic was revealed to have revenue of 4.16 billion in the first half of the year, exceeding the whole of last year.
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Source: zhidx.com
Compiled by Zhidongzhi | Editor by Eggplant | Cheng Qian Zhidongzhi reported on July 22 that yesterday, The Information reported according to a financial document that Mercor, an American AI data training unicorn, achieved revenue of US$614 million (approximately RMB 4.16 billion) in the first half of this year, a year-on-year increase of 70%, exceeding last year's full-year revenue, of which approximately 91% of revenue came from AI basic model companies. Mercor was founded in 2023. It initially made an AI recruitment tool, and later transformed to provide training data and model evaluation services to AI companies. The company organizes global professionals to participate in AI model training to help large models improve answer quality and reasoning capabilities. Mercor’s main customers include leading AI companies such as OpenAI, Anthropic and Google DeepMind, as well as emerging AI laboratories such as Reflection AI and Thinking Machines Lab. The Information reported on July 9, citing people familiar with the matter, that Mercor is planning to raise US$500 million (approximately RMB 3.4 billion), with a post-money valuation that may reach US$20 billion (approximately RMB 135.5 billion). Mercor’s last round of financing was a US$350 million (approximately RMB 2.37 billion) Series C financing completed in October 2025, with a post-investment valuation of US$10 billion (approximately RMB 67.7 billion). If this US$500 million (approximately RMB 3.4 billion) financing is successfully completed, Mercor’s valuation is expected to double within a year. Mercor was co-founded by Brendan Foody, Adarsh Hiremath and Surya Midha. Among them, Brendan Foody serves as CEO, Adarsh Hiremath serves as CTO, and Surya Midha serves as chairman of the board of directors. The three are all post-2000 entrepreneurs. They met on the debate team in high school and became close friends. They later dropped out of Georgetown University and Harvard University respectively and founded Mercor full-time.