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

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.

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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.