AI training startup Mercor raises $750 million at a $20 billion valuation
The Series D, backed by Benchmark, Felicis, Nvidia and Apollo-affiliated funds, doubles the roughly $10 billion valuation Mercor reached in October last year.
Why it matters
Mercor began as an AI-powered hiring platform and now supplies the subject-matter experts whose knowledge is used to train, test and improve AI models and agents, so its valuation is a bet on human expertise staying central to post-training. The company says the money will go towards training and testing AI agents on professional tasks. The round lands as AI-driven startups took $102 billion, or 64% of global venture capital, in the third quarter of 2026, according to Crunchbase. Watch whether model labs keep buying expert data as agents spread across jobs.
Key facts
- $750 million Series D
- $20 billion valuation
- Valued at about $10 billion after raising $350 million in October last year
- Investors include Benchmark, Felicis, Fundomo, Nvidia and Apollo-affiliated funds
- Based in San Francisco
- AI startups took $102 billion, 64% of global VC, in Q3 2026 (Crunchbase)