Every job that crosses your floor leaves a trail behind it: the RFQ email and the quote that won it, a traveler and routing, setup sheets and cycle times, a first-article report, and, when something goes wrong, an NCR, a CAPA and the thread with the customer's quality engineer about what happens to the lot. A shop that has run the same ERP for ten years holds thousands of those chains, each with its outcome written at the end.
AI buyers now pay to license a copy of exactly that. Mercor names work orders, QA logs and spec sheets, and Cognor Labs, a broker, lists routings, CMM reports, scrap logs, downtime logs, CNC programs and engineering change orders. Manufacturing is one of the nine sectors in OpenAI's GDPval benchmark, with industrial engineers, mechanical engineers and production supervisors among its occupations, and Troveo says work with an objective, checkable result is the easiest to license, which describes an inspection report well.
The catch for most shops is the CAD folder. Build-to-print work means many drawings and part numbers come from customers, so start with what your own people wrote: setup sheets, work instructions, inspection plans, quoting logic and the floor email around them. Manufacturing is not on micro1's published industry list, but Ventra, Polyshares, Grepped and Pewter all name it, and the quiz shows which of them take a shop your size.
Worth
What a shop's data may be worth
Set for a typical shop, 45 staff and 12 years of records. Move the sliders to match yours. Our estimate, not an offer.
Buyers
Which buyers want this data
Buyers whose own published rules fit manufacturers and job shops. We can introduce you to the ones we work with.
Featured partners
Polyshares
Has Manufacturing as its own intake industry, lists AutoCAD and ERP systems from QuickBooks to NetSuite and SAP, and sets no headcount floor; it excludes data held on behalf of clients, which matters for build-to-print work.14,15,16,17
- $100K to $2M+, Polyshares says12
- None, Polyshares says18
- An offer in 1 to 2 weeks, then paid in 30 to 60 days19
Watch out for: Exclusive by default, and every deal it lists is exclusive with no end date.20,21
Mode
Buys AutoCAD and NetSuite records among its sources, but counts only full-time US office employees toward its 20-person floor, so count your desks before you count the floor.28,29
Watch out for: The program launched in October 2026 and has no deal record yet.33
Pewter
Pewter says it now wants US manufacturers with 50+ employees and 3+ years in business, especially ERP and work orders, quality records and engineering files.34,35
Watch out for: Its site was registered in October 2026 and names no people.38,39
Grepped
Puts manufacturing on its intake form with no size minimum, reads only the systems you approve, and asks you to share only records you have the right to share.40,41,42,43
Watch out for: Its own site code calls its estimator "deliberately optimistic", so treat any estimate as an indication.44,45
Ventra
Lists manufacturing among the industries it says labs are buying from, singles out CAD libraries and engineering records such as drawings, test results and change logs, and takes US companies with 30+ employees and 3+ years of records.2,46,47
- $100K to $2M as potential deals, Ventra says48
- None today, though it may add fees with notice49
- An offer in 3 to 7 days, then paid on net 30 or 6048
Watch out for: Its terms say delivered data may not be deletable.50
Everyone else we reviewed
By score, with full reviews. We have no referral agreement with these companies, so we do not link out to them.
Who wants this
Do buyers want manufacturers and job shops?
No buyer publishes prices by industry, but their own intake forms show which industries they rate higher.
- Troveo puts manufacturing or industrial in its second of four demand tiers: "Your industry carries above-average buyer demand."8
- Polyshares takes manufacturing, without marking it premium.51
- VMS, a broker, gives manufacturing standard weight when it estimates value.52
Which buyers take a shop your size
Shown for 45 staff, a typical shop. Ask whether contractors and part-time staff count.
micro1
Polyshares
No headcount rule; the length and texture of the record matter more16
Mode
20+ full-time US office staff (accounting firms 10+, law firms 6+)29
Pewter
20+ staff and 3+ years; by industry, from 10+ (healthcare) to 50+ (manufacturing, finance)55,56,34
Grepped
No headcount minimum stated41
Ventra
30+ US employees and 3+ years of records47
Mercor
None stated57
Troveo
No minimum stated; its estimator starts at 2058
Nyne
20+ US W-2 employees and 3+ years59
Endless
Roughly 30+ employees60
Supersoniq
50+ employees and 5+ years61
What buyers value
What in a shop's records buyers value
What buyers look for in your records, and what to talk through with your buyer before anything leaves your systems.
| Data | Where it lives | Why a buyer values it | Raise with the buyer |
|---|---|---|---|
| Travelers, routings and work orders | ERP or job-shop software (Epicor, JobBOSS, SAP, NetSuite) | The full path of a job: which machines, in what order, how long each operation took and where it stalled. | Customer part numbers and job names printed on every traveler. |
| NCRs, CAPAs and scrap logs | Quality system, Excel or a shared drive | A defect found, its root cause argued in writing, and the fix that held or did not, which is the checkable kind of record Troveo says licenses most readily. | Customer quality engineers' names and corrective action letters on their letterhead. |
| First-article and CMM inspection reports | CMM software, inspection sheets, PDFs | Measured results against the print, with a pass or fail on every feature. | Dimensions taken from drawings a customer supplied. |
| Setup sheets, work instructions and inspection plans | Shared drive, MES or the binder at each machine | Process knowledge your own people wrote, and usually the cleanest pile to offer first. | Nothing specific |
| RFQs, quotes and the estimating email behind them | Outlook or Gmail, quoting spreadsheets | How an estimator turned a drawing into hours, material and a price, and which quotes won the work. | Customer pricing, quantities and target costs. |
| Maintenance and downtime logs | CMMS or spreadsheets | What failed, how long the machine sat, and what the technician did to bring it back. | Nothing specific |
| Engineering change orders | PLM, email or the ERP's revision history | Why a revision happened and which parts, routings and fixtures it touched. | Changes a customer requested on a design it supplied. |
A week of records
A week of data at a shop
- Monday: three RFQs arrive with drawings attached, and the estimator answers two with hours, material, outside processing and a lead time.
- Tuesday: a traveler moves through saw, mill and deburr, and the second-op setup sheet gains a note about a shimmed fixture.
- Wednesday: the CMM flags a bore out of tolerance, an NCR opens, and quality emails the customer asking whether to rework or scrap.
- Thursday: a horizontal goes down with a spindle fault, and the maintenance log records the part replaced and the hours lost.
- Friday: the CAPA closes with a revised inspection plan, and shipping prints certs and packing lists for the week's finished jobs.
Process
How it works with each buyer
In each buyer's own words. Where a buyer publishes nothing, we say so.
Polyshares
Selling or closing
Selling or closing your shop? License its data first
If you plan to sell the shop or hand it to the next generation, one law firm that advises on these deals says a license signed first will come up in the buyer's diligence, along with what was reviewed and what was left out, so keep the scope and exclusion list with your sale documents. Pewter takes firms that are operating, downsizing, winding down or closed, and Troveo's automotive guide says many companies start with retired platforms and completed programs rather than current work.3,4,5
FAQ
Manufacturers and job shops: questions, answered
Work orders and travelers, routings, setup sheets and cycle times, CMM reports, NCRs and CAPAs, downtime logs, CNC programs, engineering changes and quotes all appear on buyers' and brokers' lists. Records that end in a result, such as a passed inspection or a closed CAPA, are the ones Troveo says license most readily.1,66,67
Cognor Labs says spreadsheets and scanned paper count, and its intake asks about Epicor, JobBOSS, SAP and NetSuite alongside scanned travelers. Ask each buyer how it prices scans against ERP exports, and say on the first call which years are digital.68
Buyers we track set them apart. Polyshares excludes data held on behalf of clients, Troveo's guide lists customers' designs and test data among what comes out first, and Cognor says customer names and part numbers are masked before anything moves. Sort customer prints from your own process documents before the first call.17,5,69
Every business is different, so this one is best talked through with the buyer you're working with. Their team goes over it with you before anything is signed.
Every business is different, so this one is best talked through with the buyer you're working with. Their team goes over it with you before anything is signed.
Before you sign
Questions to talk through with your buyer
Every business is different, so these are best talked through with the buyer you're working with. Their team goes over them with you before anything is signed.
Questions for this kind of business
- Which customer terms or quality agreements give the customer rights in drawings, inspection data or tooling records we hold?
- Who screens the files for export-controlled drawings before anything leaves the shop?
- Do supplier price agreements limit sharing what we pay for material and outside processing?
- Do customer, vendor or platform contracts, NDAs or API terms restrict this?
- Could the data include privileged material or trade secrets?
- How does a license affect a sale of the business: reps and warranties, change of control, earnouts, exclusivity?
Questions for any buyer
- Is the license exclusive, and for how long?
- Can you sublicense the data, and to whom?
- Which AI labs will receive it, and will you tell us?
- How long do you keep it, and how is it deleted?
- What is your liability cap, and who indemnifies whom?
- Will the contract ban re-identification of people in the data?
- Who removes personal data, by what method, and do we approve it first?