# Mercor revenue, valuation & funding

Markdown copy of https://realalpha.app/companies/mercor/ on Real Alpha, the best minutes from long interviews with the people building AI. Cite and link the page, not this copy.

Mercor was valued at $10B in its last closed round, in October 2025, and reported a $2B yearly revenue run rate in June 2026. It's a private company. Its CEO has said an IPO is potentially on the horizon, with no date.

Checked Nov 7, 2026

## 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](https://realalpha.app/builders/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](https://www.benzinga.com/news/topics/25/11/49021486/mercor-ceo-brendan-foody-calls-it-a-new-category-of-work-as-his-10-billion-company-pays-humans-over-1-5-million-a-day-to-train-ai)). 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.

- Aug 2026 · $20B · In talks · General Catalyst · [Tech Startups](https://techstartups.com/2026/08/19/nvidia-in-talks-to-invest-in-ai-data-startup-mercor-at-20-billion-valuation/)
- Oct 2025 · $10B · $350M · Felicis · [Mercor's blog](https://www.mercor.com/blog/series-c/)
- Feb 2025 · $2B · $100M · Felicis · [TechCrunch](https://techcrunch.com/2025/02/20/mercor-an-ai-recruiting-startup-founded-by-21-year-olds-raises-100m-at-2b-valuation/)

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.

- Jun 2026 · $2B · Reported · [AI Weekly](https://aiweekly.co/alerts/mercor-books-614m-in-h1-2026-leaning-on-openai-anthropic)
- May 2026 · $1B · Company · [Mercor's blog](https://www.mercor.com/blog/when-you-go-from-2-million-a-month-to-2-million-a-day/)
- Sep 2025 · $450M · Reported · [TechCrunch](https://techcrunch.com/2025/09/09/sources-ai-training-startup-mercor-eyes-10b-valuation-on-450m-run-rate/)
- Mar 2025 · $100M · Reported · [TechCrunch](https://techcrunch.com/2025/09/09/sources-ai-training-startup-mercor-eyes-10b-valuation-on-450m-run-rate/)
- Feb 2025 · $75M · Reported · [TechCrunch](https://techcrunch.com/2025/09/09/sources-ai-training-startup-mercor-eyes-10b-valuation-on-450m-run-rate/)

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](https://aiweekly.co/alerts/mercor-books-614m-in-h1-2026-leaning-on-openai-anthropic).

## How Mercor makes money

Mercor recruits experts, among them engineers, lawyers, doctors, bankers and journalists, to train AI models ([Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mercor)). 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](https://sacra.com/c/mercor/)
- **Placement fees.** Sacra estimates it charges a recruiting fee, typically 30%, for direct talent placements. · [Sacra](https://sacra.com/c/mercor/)
- **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](https://fortune.com/2026/07/09/ai-unicorn-mercor-acquires-deeptune-brendan-foody-investor-a16z-openai-anthropic/)

From Mercor's interviews

- [Mercor followed demand signals into AI data work](https://realalpha.app/s/mercor-followed-demand-signals-into-ai-data-work/) · Brendan Foody · Unsupervised Learning · Jun 4, 2025
- [AI labs are shifting from crowdsourcing to expert data](https://realalpha.app/s/ai-labs-are-shifting-from-crowdsourcing-to-expert-data/) · Brendan Foody · Unsupervised Learning · Jun 4, 2025
- [Mercor tunes candidate evaluations with customer outcomes](https://realalpha.app/s/mercor-tunes-candidate-evaluations-with-customer-outcomes/) · Brendan Foody · Unsupervised Learning · Jun 4, 2025
- [AI can assess candidates while people focus on selling the role](https://realalpha.app/s/ai-can-assess-candidates-while-people-focus-on-selling-the/) · Brendan Foody · Unsupervised Learning · Jun 4, 2025

## 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](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mercor)
- **APEX-Agents** (January 2026). A benchmark report that tests how well leading AI models perform business tasks. · [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mercor)
- **APEX-SWE.** A software engineering benchmark co-launched with [Cognition](https://realalpha.app/companies/cognition/). · [Sacra](https://sacra.com/c/mercor/)
- **Mercor Enterprise AI.** An enterprise product covering workflow capture, agent specification, quality guardrails and continual learning. · [Sacra](https://sacra.com/c/mercor/)
- **Simulation environments.** In July 2026 Mercor bought Deeptune, an a16z-backed startup that builds simulation environments for AI agents. Terms weren't disclosed. · [Fortune](https://fortune.com/2026/07/09/ai-unicorn-mercor-acquires-deeptune-brendan-foody-investor-a16z-openai-anthropic/)

From Mercor's interviews

- [Mercor published the steps behind its 400-billion-parameter run](https://realalpha.app/s/mercor-published-the-steps-behind-its-400-billion-parameter/) · Edward Hu · MTS · Oct 28, 2026
- [Mercor uses training runs to validate its data](https://realalpha.app/s/mercor-uses-training-runs-to-validate-its-data/) · Edward Hu · MTS · Oct 28, 2026
- [Realistic AI evaluations must reflect how work happens](https://realalpha.app/s/realistic-ai-evaluations-must-reflect-how-work-happens/) · Edward Hu · MTS · Oct 28, 2026
- [Benchmarks can punish capable models for unfair reasons](https://realalpha.app/s/benchmarks-can-punish-capable-models-for-unfair-reasons/) · Edward Hu · MTS · Oct 28, 2026

## Customers

Mercor's network counted more than five million domain experts, [Fortune](https://fortune.com/2026/07/09/ai-unicorn-mercor-acquires-deeptune-brendan-foody-investor-a16z-openai-anthropic/) reported in July 2026. The company said it managed 30,000 contractors in October 2025 ([Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mercor)).

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](https://fortune.com/2026/07/09/ai-unicorn-mercor-acquires-deeptune-brendan-foody-investor-a16z-openai-anthropic/)
- **[OpenAI](https://realalpha.app/companies/openai/),** named as a customer by Fortune. · [Fortune](https://fortune.com/2026/07/09/ai-unicorn-mercor-acquires-deeptune-brendan-foody-investor-a16z-openai-anthropic/)
- **[Anthropic](https://realalpha.app/companies/anthropic/),** also a customer. · [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mercor)
- **[Meta](https://realalpha.app/companies/#meta),** which paused its work with Mercor after the March 2026 data breach, per Business Insider. · [Business Insider (via AOL)](https://www.aol.com/articles/mercor-hit-5-contractor-lawsuits-215851312.html)
- **[Nvidia](https://realalpha.app/companies/#nvidia),** which has worked with Mercor, a tech news report said in August 2026. · [Tech Startups](https://techstartups.com/2026/08/19/nvidia-in-talks-to-invest-in-ai-data-startup-mercor-at-20-billion-valuation/)

From Mercor's interviews

- [Knowledge workers may shift toward creating evals](https://realalpha.app/s/knowledge-workers-may-shift-toward-creating-evals/) · Brendan Foody · Unsupervised Learning · Jun 4, 2025
- [Foundation models may split between APIs and custom applications](https://realalpha.app/s/foundation-models-may-split-between-apis-and-custom/) · Brendan Foody · Unsupervised Learning · Jun 4, 2025

## Leadership

- **[Brendan Foody](https://realalpha.app/builders/brendan-foody/),** co-founder and CEO. · [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mercor)
- **Adarsh Hiremath,** co-founder and CTO. · [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mercor)
- **Surya Midha,** co-founder and board chairman. · [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mercor)
- **Sundeep Jain,** joined in May 2025 as its first president. He was chief product officer at Uber. · [Sacra](https://sacra.com/c/mercor/)
- **[Edward Hu](https://realalpha.app/builders/edward-hu/),** head of AI modeling. He invented LoRA and μTransfer at Microsoft.

From Mercor's interviews

- [Mercor's AI interviews increased onsite conversion](https://realalpha.app/s/mercors-ai-interviews-increased-onsite-conversion/) · Brendan Foody · Unsupervised Learning · Jun 4, 2025

## 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](https://www.mercor.com/blog/series-c/)
- **Benchmark, General Catalyst and Robinhood Ventures** took part in the Series C. · [Mercor's blog](https://www.mercor.com/blog/series-c/)
- **Peter Thiel, Jack Dorsey, Adam D'Angelo and Larry Summers** are named by Sacra among its investors. · [Sacra](https://sacra.com/c/mercor/)
- **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](https://techstartups.com/2026/08/19/nvidia-in-talks-to-invest-in-ai-data-startup-mercor-at-20-billion-valuation/)

From Mercor's interviews

- [Mercor’s early rounds priced in growth, not current revenue](https://realalpha.app/s/mercors-early-rounds-priced-in-growth-not-current-revenue/) · Brendan Foody · 20VC · Sep 15, 2025
- [AI revenue quality depends on retention and subsidy durability](https://realalpha.app/s/ai-revenue-quality-depends-on-retention-and-subsidy/) · Brendan Foody · 20VC · Sep 15, 2025

## Competitors

Mercor competes with other firms that supply human data to AI labs. [Sacra](https://sacra.com/c/mercor/) names two as its most direct rivals.

- **[Scale AI](https://realalpha.app/companies/scale-ai/),** which offers AI data annotation. It sued Mercor in September 2025. · [Sacra](https://sacra.com/c/mercor/)
- **[Surge AI](https://realalpha.app/companies/surge-ai/),** which also offers AI data annotation. · [Sacra](https://sacra.com/c/mercor/)

## Timeline and latest news

- Aug 19, 2026 · The Information reported Nvidia had discussed investing in a round at a $20B valuation. · [Tech Startups](https://techstartups.com/2026/08/19/nvidia-in-talks-to-invest-in-ai-data-startup-mercor-at-20-billion-valuation/)
- Jul 21, 2026 · The consolidated data breach class actions were stayed for mediation. · [Settlement Insight](https://settlementinsight.com/is-mercor-legit)
- Jul 9, 2026 · Acquired Deeptune, which builds simulation environments for AI agents. · [Fortune](https://fortune.com/2026/07/09/ai-unicorn-mercor-acquires-deeptune-brendan-foody-investor-a16z-openai-anthropic/)
- Jul 9, 2026 · Bloomberg reported talks to raise a round at a $20B valuation. · [TechCrunch](https://techcrunch.com/2026/07/09/mercor-is-in-talks-for-a-20b-valuation/)
- Jun 9, 2026 · Mercor asked the court to send the White case to individual arbitration. · [Settlement Insight](https://settlementinsight.com/is-mercor-legit)
- Jun 2026 · Its yearly run rate reached $2B, according to Brendan Foody. · [AI Weekly](https://aiweekly.co/alerts/mercor-books-614m-in-h1-2026-leaning-on-openai-anthropic)
- May 8, 2026 · A suit in Texas argued its experts should be treated as employees. · [Settlement Insight](https://settlementinsight.com/is-mercor-legit)
- Apr 2026 · Contractors filed five lawsuits over the data breach. · [Business Insider (via AOL)](https://www.aol.com/articles/mercor-hit-5-contractor-lawsuits-215851312.html)
- Mar 2026 · Mercor said it was hit by a breach through the LiteLLM open-source project. · [Business Insider (via AOL)](https://www.aol.com/articles/mercor-hit-5-contractor-lawsuits-215851312.html)
- Jan 2026 · Released its first APEX-Agents benchmark report. · [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mercor)
- Nov 2025 · Brendan Foody said an IPO is potentially on the horizon. · [Benzinga](https://www.benzinga.com/news/topics/25/11/49021486/mercor-ceo-brendan-foody-calls-it-a-new-category-of-work-as-his-10-billion-company-pays-humans-over-1-5-million-a-day-to-train-ai)
- Oct 27, 2025 · Announced a $350M Series C at a $10B valuation, led by Felicis. · [Mercor's blog](https://www.mercor.com/blog/series-c/)
- Sep 9, 2025 · TechCrunch reported a run rate approaching $450M. · [TechCrunch](https://techcrunch.com/2025/09/09/sources-ai-training-startup-mercor-eyes-10b-valuation-on-450m-run-rate/)
- Sep 3, 2025 · Scale AI sued Mercor over alleged trade-secret theft. · [TechCrunch](https://techcrunch.com/2025/09/03/scale-ai-is-suing-a-former-employee-and-rival-mercor-alleging-they-tried-to-steal-its-biggest-customers)
- May 2025 · Hired Uber's former chief product officer Sundeep Jain as its first president. · [Sacra](https://sacra.com/c/mercor/)
- Feb 20, 2025 · Raised a $100M Series B at a $2B valuation, led by Felicis. · [TechCrunch](https://techcrunch.com/2025/02/20/mercor-an-ai-recruiting-startup-founded-by-21-year-olds-raises-100m-at-2b-valuation/)

## 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](https://www.aol.com/articles/mercor-hit-5-contractor-lawsuits-215851312.html)). 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)](https://www.aol.com/articles/mercor-hit-5-contractor-lawsuits-215851312.html)
- **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](https://settlementinsight.com/is-mercor-legit)
- **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](https://settlementinsight.com/is-mercor-legit)
- **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](https://settlementinsight.com/is-mercor-legit)
- **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](https://techcrunch.com/2025/09/03/scale-ai-is-suing-a-former-employee-and-rival-mercor-alleging-they-tried-to-steal-its-biggest-customers)

## In their own words, and what followed

- [Mercor’s early rounds priced in growth, not current revenue](https://realalpha.app/s/mercors-early-rounds-priced-in-growth-not-current-revenue/) · Brendan Foody · 20VC · Sep 15, 2025
  > “He gave us the term sheet and we were at a little over $2 million in revenue run rate.”
  Reported after · In October 2025 Mercor announced a $350M Series C at a $10B valuation, five times its Series B valuation. · [Mercor's blog](https://www.mercor.com/blog/series-c/)

- [AI labs are shifting from crowdsourcing to expert data](https://realalpha.app/s/ai-labs-are-shifting-from-crowdsourcing-to-expert-data/) · Brendan Foody · Unsupervised Learning · Jun 4, 2025
  > “Because you needed really high quality people that would work directly with researchers”
  Reported after · By July 2026 Fortune described Mercor's network as more than five million domain experts. · [Fortune](https://fortune.com/2026/07/09/ai-unicorn-mercor-acquires-deeptune-brendan-foody-investor-a16z-openai-anthropic/)

- [Mercor followed demand signals into AI data work](https://realalpha.app/s/mercor-followed-demand-signals-into-ai-data-work/) · Brendan Foody · Unsupervised Learning · Jun 4, 2025
  > “you need to just look for the signs of the market”
  Reported after · Its yearly run rate reached a reported $2B in June 2026. · [AI Weekly](https://aiweekly.co/alerts/mercor-books-614m-in-h1-2026-leaning-on-openai-anthropic)

## What others say about Mercor

- [Human-labeling businesses may have a short runway](https://realalpha.app/s/human-labeling-businesses-may-have-a-short-runway/) · Keith Rabois · All-In · Jul 11, 2025
  > “should we invest in companies like scale or mercor”

## 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](https://www.benzinga.com/news/topics/25/11/49021486/mercor-ceo-brendan-foody-calls-it-a-new-category-of-work-as-his-10-billion-company-pays-humans-over-1-5-million-a-day-to-train-ai)). 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.

### Who is the CEO of Mercor?

[Brendan Foody](https://realalpha.app/builders/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](https://www.mercor.com/blog/series-c/)). 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](https://techcrunch.com/2026/07/09/mercor-is-in-talks-for-a-20b-valuation/) 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](https://techcrunch.com/2025/09/09/sources-ai-training-startup-mercor-eyes-10b-valuation-on-450m-run-rate/) reported, citing Forbes. Sacra says it was profitable on a free-cash-flow basis in early 2026.

### How does Mercor make money?

AI labs pay it for expert work that trains and tests their models. [Sacra](https://sacra.com/c/mercor/) estimates 60 to 70% of that revenue goes to the experts.

### 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

### AI Outperforms Junior Accountants on Real Work | Edward Hu
MTS · Oct 28, 2026

- [Benchmarks can punish capable models for unfair reasons](https://realalpha.app/s/benchmarks-can-punish-capable-models-for-unfair-reasons/) · 6 min
- [Realistic AI evaluations must reflect how work happens](https://realalpha.app/s/realistic-ai-evaluations-must-reflect-how-work-happens/) · 3 min
- [Mercor uses training runs to validate its data](https://realalpha.app/s/mercor-uses-training-runs-to-validate-its-data/) · 3 min
- [Mercor published the steps behind its 400-billion-parameter run](https://realalpha.app/s/mercor-published-the-steps-behind-its-400-billion-parameter/) · 2 min

### Mercor CEO & Co-Founder, Brendan Foody: How They Grew from $1M to $500M in 17 Months
20VC · Sep 15, 2025

- [AI revenue quality depends on retention and subsidy durability](https://realalpha.app/s/ai-revenue-quality-depends-on-retention-and-subsidy/) · 3 min
- [Mercor’s early rounds priced in growth, not current revenue](https://realalpha.app/s/mercors-early-rounds-priced-in-growth-not-current-revenue/) · 3 min

### Mercor CEO: Evals Will Replace Knowledge Work, AI x Hiring Today & the Future of Data Labeling
Unsupervised Learning · Jun 4, 2025

- [AI labs are shifting from crowdsourcing to expert data](https://realalpha.app/s/ai-labs-are-shifting-from-crowdsourcing-to-expert-data/) · 3 min
- [Mercor followed demand signals into AI data work](https://realalpha.app/s/mercor-followed-demand-signals-into-ai-data-work/) · 4 min
- [Foundation models may split between APIs and custom applications](https://realalpha.app/s/foundation-models-may-split-between-apis-and-custom/) · 3 min
- [Mercor's AI interviews increased onsite conversion](https://realalpha.app/s/mercors-ai-interviews-increased-onsite-conversion/) · 2 min
- [Knowledge workers may shift toward creating evals](https://realalpha.app/s/knowledge-workers-may-shift-toward-creating-evals/) · 4 min
- [AI can assess candidates while people focus on selling the role](https://realalpha.app/s/ai-can-assess-candidates-while-people-focus-on-selling-the/) · 3 min
- [Missing workplace context can be the main evaluation bottleneck](https://realalpha.app/s/missing-workplace-context-can-be-the-main-evaluation/) · 2 min
- [Mercor tunes candidate evaluations with customer outcomes](https://realalpha.app/s/mercor-tunes-candidate-evaluations-with-customer-outcomes/) · 3 min

## People on Real Alpha

- [Brendan Foody](https://realalpha.app/builders/brendan-foody/), Co-founder & CEO, Mercor
- [Edward Hu](https://realalpha.app/builders/edward-hu/), Head of AI modeling, Mercor

## How this page is sourced

Each figure links to the filing, company statement or news report it came from, with its date. Run rates are what reporters were told, not audited results; estimates and unconfirmed reports are marked. Quotes are what each person said on the record, with the minute they said it.