Mercor doubles to $2B gross revenue run rate as AI labs buy expert data
What's the deal? AI data startup Mercor hit over $2 billion in gross annualized revenue in June 2026, double its pace at the start of the year, according to a person with direct knowledge of the company's financials. The three-year-old company pays contractors with domain expertise in fields such as physics and finance to answer questions and create specialized data used to train AI models.
Why now? The growth comes from rising demand among AI app developers and Fortune 500 customers looking to build their own models or fine-tune existing ones, the person said.
What's the endgame? Mercor operates a two-sided marketplace, billing AI labs and enterprise clients for access to global talent while paying contractors across dozens of countries. Chief executive officer Brendan FoodyDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom → said in September 2025 that Mercor was the fastest growing company of all time after scaling from a $1 million to a $500 million run rate in 17 months.
The numbers: Mercor pays out 60% to 70% of its topline revenue to contractors, meaning net revenue falls between roughly $600 million and $800 million. The company is profitable on a free cash flow basis, the person said, and generated about $6 million of profit in the first half of 2025. It now pays over $2 million a day to more than 30,000 weekly active contractors.
What could go wrong? The gross figure is a matter of debate. Analysts note that Mercor's headline number reflects total customer spend before contractor payouts, not net revenue retained — a critique likely to intensify as the company touts multibillion-dollar milestones. The larger risk: AI labs could decide to build these expert networks in-house.
The money behind it: In October 2025, Mercor raised $350 million at a $10 billion valuation, led by Felicis, with Benchmark, General Catalyst, and Robinhood VenturesDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom → participating. That came eight months after a $100 million Series B at a $2 billion valuation.
The signal: Investors have been rewarding AI "picks-and-shovels" plays that sell talent, data, and infrastructure into hyperscalers and frontier labs. What sets Mercor apart is its free-cash-flow profitability, rare among generative-AI peers still running at heavy losses — though its thin margins mean the flywheel costs money to spin as revenue grows. Rival Handshake reached $1 billion in gross annualized revenue in early 2026.
Read more: The Information, Mercor
