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Mercor is in talks for a $20B valuation

Mercor is in talks for a $20B valuation

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AI training startup Mercor is eyeing a $20 billion valuation despite earlier 2026 legal and data security hurdles.
What: Mercor is in early talks to double its valuation to $20 billion, following a $10 billion valuation last October. CEO Brendan Foody reports an annualized revenue run rate of $2 billion, while the company just acquired Deeptune to bolster its AI agent training capabilities.
Why it matters: The rapid revenue growth suggests the firm successfully navigated a difficult start to 2026, including lawsuits and a major data breach, by pivoting toward enterprise-scale AI training.
Decoder
  • Annualized revenue run rate: A financial metric that extrapolates a company's most recent monthly or quarterly revenue to project its total revenue over a full year, assuming current performance remains constant.
Original article

Mercor is in talks for a $20B valuation

AI training startup Mercor is reportedly in talks to raise a round at a $20 billion valuation, sources tell Bloomberg. That would be quite a jump from its last value in October, when it raised a $350 million Series C at a $10 billion valuation.

The conversations for this latest round are at early stages, the outlet noted, yet it reported that Mercor told investors it already received a term sheet at the new valuation. This report also comes as founder-CEO Brendan Foody took to X to say the company’s annualized revenue run rate crossed $2 billion, a 100% increase from just four months ago.

Mercor also announced on Thursday that it was buying Deeptune, a company that helps train AI agents. The entire Deeptune team will be joining Mercor as part of the acquisition, per its press release. The revenue numbers, acquisition, and potential new funding signal that Mercor may have put its bumpy early 2026 troubles behind it. Earlier this year, the company suffered a data breach and several of its contract workers filed lawsuits, Business Insider reported.

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