Mercor revenue, valuation & funding

At a glance

• Valuation: $10B at its last closed round, the Series C in October 2025. Reports in July and August 2026 described talks at $20B.
• Revenue: a $2B yearly run rate in June 2026, as reported. Mercor publishes no audited results.
• Status: private. No stock ticker. Its CEO has said an IPO is potentially on the horizon, with no date.
• Founded: 2023, by Brendan Foody, Adarsh Hiremath and Surya Midha.
• CEO: Brendan Foody.
• Investors: Felicis, Benchmark, General Catalyst and Robinhood Ventures, plus Peter Thiel, Jack Dorsey, Adam D'Angelo and Larry Summers.
• Products: a marketplace of experts who train AI models, the APEX benchmarks and Mercor Enterprise AI.
• Headquarters: San Francisco, at 181 Fremont.
• On Real Alpha: 14 moments of its people talking, from 3 interviews.

Is Mercor public? Can you buy its stock?

No. Mercor is a private company, so its shares don't trade on any stock exchange and it has no ticker symbol.

Brendan Foody told the TBPN podcast in November 2025 that an IPO is "potentially on the horizon" (Benzinga). He didn't give a date. No IPO filing has been reported.

Until then, its shares are held by its founders, staff and investors. This page reports facts and gives no investment advice.

Valuation, round by round

Its valuation went from $2B in February 2025 to $10B in October 2025, five times in eight months.

Reports in July and August 2026 describe talks at a $20B valuation, and no close has been reported. Sacra cites a $250M Series A in September 2024, which isn't confirmed by a primary report.

Revenue

Mercor doesn't publish results. Its reported yearly run rate rose from $75M in February 2025 to $2B in June 2026, more than twenty-five times.

A run rate is a month's revenue times twelve and isn't audited revenue. Mercor booked about $614 million in gross revenue in the first half of 2026, per AI Weekly.

How Mercor makes money

Mercor recruits experts, among them engineers, lawyers, doctors, bankers and journalists, to train AI models (Wikipedia). AI labs pay for that work, and Mercor pays the experts.

Brendan Foody has said labs moved away from crowdsourced labeling toward experts who work directly with researchers.

• Pay to experts. Sacra estimates contractors receive 60 to 70% of top-line revenue. By Sacra's estimate, that puts first-half 2026 net revenue at roughly $180 million to $250 million. Sacra
• Placement fees. Sacra estimates it charges a recruiting fee, typically 30%, for direct talent placements. Sacra
• Tasks and rubrics. Its experts build the tasks and scoring rubrics that tell a model whether it did the job right, Fortune reported in July 2026. Fortune

Products

Edward Hu says Mercor trains models on its own data and aims to attach a training recipe to each data delivery.

• Expert marketplace. Mercor matches experts in fields like law, medicine and banking with labs that need AI training data. Wikipedia
• APEX-Agents (January 2026). A benchmark report that tests how well leading AI models perform business tasks. Wikipedia
• APEX-SWE. A software engineering benchmark co-launched with Cognition. Sacra
• Mercor Enterprise AI. An enterprise product covering workflow capture, agent specification, quality guardrails and continual learning. Sacra
• Simulation environments. In July 2026 Mercor bought Deeptune, an a16z-backed startup that builds simulation environments for AI agents. Terms weren't disclosed. Fortune

Customers

Mercor's network counted more than five million domain experts, Fortune reported in July 2026. The company said it managed 30,000 contractors in October 2025 (Wikipedia).

Its customers are mostly AI labs and large tech companies.

• Big Tech. Brendan Foody said in July 2026 that all of the Magnificent Seven except Tesla are Mercor customers. Fortune
• OpenAI, named as a customer by Fortune. Fortune
• Anthropic, also a customer. Wikipedia
• Meta, which paused its work with Mercor after the March 2026 data breach, per Business Insider. Business Insider (via AOL)
• Nvidia, which has worked with Mercor, a tech news report said in August 2026. Tech Startups

Leadership

• Brendan Foody, co-founder and CEO. Wikipedia
• Adarsh Hiremath, co-founder and CTO. Wikipedia
• Surya Midha, co-founder and board chairman. Wikipedia
• Sundeep Jain, joined in May 2025 as its first president. He was chief product officer at Uber. Sacra
• Edward Hu, head of AI modeling. He invented LoRA and μTransfer at Microsoft.

Who owns Mercor?

Its founders, staff and investors. As a private company it doesn't publish who holds what, and no stake has been disclosed.

• Felicis led the $350M Series C in October 2025, as it had led the Series B. Mercor's blog
• Benchmark, General Catalyst and Robinhood Ventures took part in the Series C. Mercor's blog
• Peter Thiel, Jack Dorsey, Adam D'Angelo and Larry Summers are named by Sacra among its investors. Sacra
• Nvidia discussed investing in a round at a $20B valuation, The Information reported in August 2026. General Catalyst was in talks to lead it, and no deal was final. Tech Startups

Competitors

Mercor competes with other firms that supply human data to AI labs. Sacra names two as its most direct rivals.

• Scale AI, which offers AI data annotation. It sued Mercor in September 2025. Sacra
• Surge AI, which also offers AI data annotation. Sacra

Timeline and latest news

From its founding to the latest reports, newest first.

1. Aug 19, 2026Latest
   The Information reported Nvidia had discussed investing in a round at a $20B valuation. Tech Startups
2. Jul 21, 2026Latest
   The consolidated data breach class actions were stayed for mediation. Settlement Insight
3. Jul 9, 2026Latest
   Acquired Deeptune, which builds simulation environments for AI agents. Fortune
4. Jul 9, 2026
   Bloomberg reported talks to raise a round at a $20B valuation. TechCrunch
5. Jun 9, 2026
   Mercor asked the court to send the White case to individual arbitration. Settlement Insight
6. Jun 2026
   Its yearly run rate reached $2B, according to Brendan Foody. AI Weekly
7. May 8, 2026
   A suit in Texas argued its experts should be treated as employees. Settlement Insight
8. Apr 2026
   Contractors filed five lawsuits over the data breach. Business Insider (via AOL)
9. Mar 2026
   Mercor said it was hit by a breach through the LiteLLM open-source project. Business Insider (via AOL)
10. Jan 2026
    Released its first APEX-Agents benchmark report. Wikipedia
11. Nov 2025
    Brendan Foody said an IPO is potentially on the horizon. Benzinga
12. Oct 27, 2025
    Announced a $350M Series C at a $10B valuation, led by Felicis. Mercor's blog
13. Sep 9, 2025
    TechCrunch reported a run rate approaching $450M. TechCrunch
14. Sep 3, 2025
    Scale AI sued Mercor over alleged trade-secret theft. TechCrunch
15. May 2025
    Hired Uber's former chief product officer Sundeep Jain as its first president. Sacra
16. Feb 20, 2025
    Raised a $100M Series B at a $2B valuation, led by Felicis. TechCrunch

Legal matters

Mercor faces suits over a March 2026 data breach and over how it classifies its experts. Contractors filed five breach suits in California and Texas in early April 2026 (Business Insider). An earlier trade-secret case from Scale AI was dismissed.

• Data breach. Mercor said it was affected by a breach of the open-source LiteLLM project in late March 2026. Up to 4 terabytes of internal data were potentially exposed. Business Insider (via AOL)
• Breach class actions. Seven class actions are combined in In re Mercor.io Corporation Data Breach Litigation. The case has been stayed since July 21, 2026 for mediation. Settlement Insight
• White v. Mercor.io Corporation (filed May 8, 2026, Northern District of Texas). It argues Mercor's experts should count as employees rather than independent contractors. Settlement Insight
• Arbitration motion. On June 9, 2026 Mercor asked the court to send the White case to individual arbitration and strike its class allegations. No ruling has been reported. Settlement Insight
• Scale AI (filed September 3, 2025, N.D. Cal.). It sued Mercor and former Scale employee Eugene Ling over alleged trade-secret theft. Sacra says the case was later dismissed with prejudice. TechCrunch

In their own words, and what followed

What people said about the business, with the minute they said it, and what was reported after.

What others say about Mercor

Moments where people outside the company talk about it.

Questions people ask

Is Mercor a public company? Can I buy Mercor stock?

No. Mercor is private and has no ticker, so its shares aren't sold on any exchange. It hasn't set an IPO date.

When will Mercor IPO?

Brendan Foody told the TBPN podcast in November 2025 that an IPO is "potentially on the horizon" (Benzinga). He gave no date, and no filing has been reported.

Who owns Mercor?

Its founders, staff and investors, including Felicis, Benchmark, General Catalyst and Robinhood Ventures. Stakes haven't been disclosed. 27:50

Who is the CEO of Mercor?

Brendan Foody, who co-founded it in 2023.

Who founded Mercor?

Brendan Foody, Adarsh Hiremath and Surya Midha, three Bay Area high school friends, in 2023.

How much is Mercor worth?

$10B at its last closed round, the Series C in October 2025 (Mercor). Reports in July and August 2026 described talks at $20B, and no close has been reported.

How much revenue does Mercor make?

A $2B yearly run rate in June 2026, as TechCrunch reported. It booked about $614 million in gross revenue in the first half of 2026.

Is Mercor profitable?

It doesn't publish results. It made $6 million in profit in the first half of 2025, TechCrunch reported, citing Forbes. Sacra says it was profitable on a free-cash-flow basis in early 2026. 35:23

How does Mercor make money?

AI labs pay it for expert work that trains and tests their models. Sacra estimates 60 to 70% of that revenue goes to the experts. 18:55

Who are Mercor's customers?

Fortune names OpenAI and Anthropic, and Brendan Foody said all of the Magnificent Seven except Tesla are customers. Meta paused its work after the March 2026 breach.

Where is Mercor headquartered?

San Francisco, at 181 Fremont.

Who are Mercor's competitors?

Sacra names Scale AI and Surge AI as its most direct competitors.

Every moment from Mercor's people

14 moments from 3 interviews on 3 shows, newest first. Each one plays from the minute it starts.

People on Real Alpha

• Brendan Foody, Co-founder & CEO, Mercor · 10 moments
• Edward Hu, Head of AI modeling, Mercor · 4 moments

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