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AI training startup Mercor valued at $20 billion in latest funding round

By Thomson Reuters Nov 10, 2026 | 9:37 AM

Nov 10 (Reuters) – Mercor said on Tuesday it had raised $750 million in a funding round that valued the AI ​training startup at $20 billion.

The Series ‌D round drew participation from Benchmark, Felicis, Fundomo, Nvidia and funds managed by affiliates of Apollo, among others.

Here are more details:

• Investor enthusiasm for ‌AI ​has fueled a sharp ⁠rise in private funding ⁠this year, creating a growing group of heavily capitalized startups carrying multibillion-dollar valuations

• Mercor, which began as an AI-powered hiring ​platform, now connects technology companies with subject-matter experts whose knowledge is used ⁠to train, test and ⁠improve AI models and agents

• The ​San Francisco-based company said it will use ​the funding to help train and test ‌AI agents on professional tasks

• “Every job in the economy will need its own AI agents and every company will need ⁠a way to train and evaluate them on its own work,” co-CEO Brendan Foody said

• According ⁠to Crunchbase, ‌AI-driven startups raised $102 billion, or ⁠64% of global venture capital, ​in ‌the third quarter of 2026

• Mercor, ​which is ⁠backed by Jack Dorsey and venture capitalist Peter Thiel, was valued at about $10 billion after raising $350 million in October last year

(Reporting by Pragyan Kalita in Bengaluru; Editing by ​Shreya Biswas)