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Who buys company data for AI? The 2026 list

Five kinds of companies buy company data for AI: the AI labs themselves, data companies like micro1 and Mercor that license from businesses and supply the labs, wind-down channels like SimpleClosure for closed companies, brokers who connect you to a buyer for a fee, and open data marketplaces. Most owners deal with the second group.1,2,3,4,5,6

By Lead analyst (to be named) · reviewed by Reviewing editor (to be named) · published 14 Oct 2026 · updated 18 Oct 2026

1. The AI labs: the end buyers

Google, OpenAI, Anthropic, Meta and the other labs are where most company data ends up. But they rarely buy from a small business directly. Their published data deals are with big publishers and platforms: Google pays Reddit about $60M a year, Reuters reported, and News Corp's OpenAI deal was reported at more than $250M over 5 years.7,8

The one big exception so far is Spirit Airlines. In its bankruptcy, Google bid $10M directly for the airline's internal archive. The court has not ruled on that sale.1,9

2. Data companies that license from businesses

These are the companies an operating business usually signs with. They license your records, clean them and use them to build training material for the labs. Mercor's customers, for example, include Anthropic, OpenAI and Meta. The terms listed below are each company's own.10

  1. micro1: $1B committed over 12 months; tiers from $100K to $2M+; 30+ employees.2,11,12
  2. Mercor: links to 100+ tools; no fees; wire 2-4 weeks after signing; no published price.13,14,15,16
  3. Turing's Project Lazarus: up to $1M in one payment, for operating and winding-down companies.17,18
  4. Handshake: AI data partnerships for companies with 20+ full-time staff and 3+ years in operation.19
  5. Surge AI: buys company archives to build training gyms for AI agents; no public seller page.20,21
  6. Polyshares: says $100K-$2M+ is typical, offer in 1-2 weeks, paid Net 30-60.22,23
  7. Troveo: licenses on a revenue share; says full-company deals start at six figures.24,25
  8. Nyne: says deals are typically $100K or more, for 20+ US W-2 staff and 3+ years.26,27

3. Wind-down channels for closed companies

If your company is closing or already closed, a different set of buyers handles it. They price lower, because the history has stopped and fewer people remain to explain it.4

  1. SimpleClosure Asset Hub: over 150 data deals, typically $10K-$100K each.4
  2. Sunset: buys a wound-down company's dataset outright, then licenses it to AI labs.28
  3. Hilco: a liquidation firm that now lists enterprise data and AI training assets as an advisory line.29

4. Brokers and referral middlemen

Most of the ads you see come from this group. We counted at least 18 advertisers running company data ads, and most are brokers rather than buyers. They introduce you to a data company and are paid when a deal closes, usually by the buyer.5

Pewter says its fee is paid by an unnamed licensing partner at close. Endless says the labs pay it, not you. Cognor Labs says it is a referral partner paid by the data partner. Jottings is different: it says it takes a success fee of typically 20-30% from your payout.30,31,32,33

Many are brand new. Pewter's domain was registered on 2026-10-10, Cognor Labs' on 2026-09-16 and Supersoniq's on 2026-10-11. New is not the same as bad, but it means there is little history to check.34,35,36

5. Open data marketplaces

Marketplaces list datasets for any buyer to find. Datarade takes a 30%, 20% or 15% commission depending on the seller's plan. FileYield charges sellers 8% and buyers 6%, and says it does not check datasets or verify a seller's rights. Cloudflare bought the AI data marketplace Human Native in January 2026.6,37,38,39

Pros and cons

Pros

  • More buyers means competition: micro1 filed a bid above Google's for Spirit's data.40
  • Some buyers say they will beat a written offer from another buyer.41
  • Different groups fit different situations, from operating firms to closed startups.12,4

Cons

  • Most advertisers are brokers, so the real buyer can be two steps away.5
  • Many new names have only weeks of history.34,36
  • Sellers often cannot see which AI lab ends up with the data.42
  • Some marketplaces do not check that a seller has the right to sell.38

What it means for a business like yours

Find your group first. An operating business with 30 or more staff fits the data companies in group 2. A business that is closing fits group 3. If you have fewer than 20 people, your list is short: Troveo names no minimum headcount, and Jottings states no headcount floor.12,43,44

If a broker calls you, that can still be a good route. Just ask two questions before anything else: which company actually pays for the data, and who pays the broker. The answers tell you whose interests they represent.30,33

Should your business get in now?

Businesses are already licensing their records: micro1 has committed $1B over 12 months to buying company data, and at least 18 firms started advertising for it between September and mid-October 2026.2,5 Our view, not a promise: the money will not be around forever, because prices tend to come down as more businesses sell.2,45 Take the quiz to see which firms fit your business.

Plus a free Seller's Guide when you finish.

Take the quizWho the brokerages are

We feature companies that pay us a referral fee. Our scores and reviews don't change for it. How we earn.

FAQ

Questions, answered with sources

  • AI labs at the end, but mostly through data companies such as micro1, Mercor and Turing's Project Lazarus. Closed companies sell through channels like SimpleClosure and Sunset.2,3,17,4,28

  • Not from small businesses, as far as published deals show. Their deals are with large publishers, and company data reaches them through licensors: Mercor's customers include Anthropic and OpenAI, micro1 says it works with Microsoft, and Polyshares does not disclose which labs take its data.8,10,46,47

  • No buyer publishes comparable deals. micro1 states tiers up to $2M+, Turing's Project Lazarus up to $1M, and Polyshares $100K-$2M+, all their own figures.11,17,22

  • Most want 20 to 30 or more staff, by their own pages. A few, such as Troveo, Jottings and Mercor, state no minimum headcount.43,44,48,49,50,27,12,51

  • A buyer licenses and pays for your data. A broker introduces you to a buyer and is paid a fee, often by the buyer. Most company data advertisers are brokers.5,30

  • SimpleClosure, Sunset and Turing's Project Lazarus all buy from wound-down companies. SimpleClosure's deals are typically $10K-$100K.4,28,18

  • Look up when its domain was registered and whether it names a legal company and address. Several new advertisers' domains are only weeks old.34,52

  • 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

  • Do customer, supplier or platform contracts, NDAs or API terms restrict this?

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?

How this page was made: drafted with AI help from the sources below, each checked; a buyer's claims about itself are its own. Updated October 2026. How we rank.

Sources (52)

  1. 1.Bloomberg Law, published 17 Aug 2026. Accessed 14 Oct 2026.
  2. 2.The Next Web, published 9 Oct 2026. Accessed 14 Oct 2026.
  3. 3.Mercor Data page. Accessed 14 Oct 2026. Company's own claim.
  4. 4.Forbes, published 16 Apr 2026. Accessed 14 Oct 2026.
  5. 5.Meta Ad Library (our review). Accessed 14 Oct 2026.
  6. 6.Datarade data providers page. Accessed 14 Oct 2026. Company's own claim.
  7. 7.TechCrunch, published 22 Feb 2024. Accessed 14 Oct 2026.
  8. 8.Quartz. Accessed 14 Oct 2026.
  9. 9.TravelPulse, published 10 Oct 2026. Accessed 14 Oct 2026.
  10. 10.Fortune, published 2 Apr 2026. Accessed 14 Oct 2026.
  11. 11.micro1 data partnerships page. Accessed 14 Oct 2026. Company's own claim.
  12. 12.micro1 company referral page. Accessed 14 Oct 2026. Company's own claim.
  13. 13.Mercor Data page. Accessed 14 Oct 2026. Company's own claim.
  14. 14.Mercor Data page. Accessed 14 Oct 2026. Company's own claim.
  15. 15.Mercor Data page. Accessed 14 Oct 2026. Company's own claim.
  16. 16.Mercor Data page. Accessed 14 Oct 2026. Company's own claim.
  17. 17.Turing Project Lazarus page. Accessed 14 Oct 2026. Company's own claim.
  18. 18.Turing Project Lazarus page. Accessed 14 Oct 2026. Company's own claim.
  19. 19.Handshake AI data partnerships referral page. Accessed 14 Oct 2026. Company's own claim.
  20. 20.MIT Technology Review, published 13 Oct 2026. Accessed 14 Oct 2026.
  21. 21.MIT Technology Review, published 13 Oct 2026. Accessed 14 Oct 2026.
  22. 22.Polyshares website. Accessed 14 Oct 2026. Company's own claim.
  23. 23.Polyshares website. Accessed 14 Oct 2026. Company's own claim.
  24. 24.Troveo, published 11 Sep 2026. Accessed 14 Oct 2026. Company's own claim.
  25. 25.Troveo business data page. Accessed 14 Oct 2026. Company's own claim.
  26. 26.Nyne sell-company-data page. Accessed 14 Oct 2026. Company's own claim.
  27. 27.Nyne sell-company-data page. Accessed 14 Oct 2026. Company's own claim.
  28. 28.Sunset blog, published 14 Apr 2026. Accessed 14 Oct 2026. Company's own claim.
  29. 29.Hilco Global intangible assets page, published 21 Jul 2026. Accessed 14 Oct 2026. Company's own claim.
  30. 30.Pewter website. Accessed 14 Oct 2026. Company's own claim.
  31. 31.Endless website. Accessed 14 Oct 2026. Company's own claim.
  32. 32.Cognor Labs website. Accessed 14 Oct 2026. Company's own claim.
  33. 33.Jottings how we get paid page. Accessed 14 Oct 2026. Company's own claim.
  34. 34.RDAP domain record. Accessed 14 Oct 2026.
  35. 35.RDAP domain record. Accessed 14 Oct 2026.
  36. 36.RDAP domain record. Accessed 14 Oct 2026.
  37. 37.FileYield data buyers page. Accessed 14 Oct 2026. Company's own claim.
  38. 38.FileYield terms, published 11 Oct 2026. Accessed 14 Oct 2026. Company's own claim.
  39. 39.Cloudflare blog, published 15 Jan 2026. Accessed 14 Oct 2026. Company's own claim.
  40. 40.AI Weekly. Accessed 14 Oct 2026.
  41. 41.Nyne sell-company-data page. Accessed 14 Oct 2026. Company's own claim.
  42. 42.MIT Technology Review, published 13 Oct 2026. Accessed 14 Oct 2026.
  43. 43.Troveo business data page. Accessed 14 Oct 2026. Company's own claim.
  44. 44.Jottings FAQ. Accessed 14 Oct 2026. Company's own claim.
  45. 45.TechCrunch, published 16 Sep 2025. Accessed 14 Oct 2026.
  46. 46.TechCrunch, published 4 Dec 2025. Accessed 14 Oct 2026.
  47. 47.Polyshares website. Accessed 14 Oct 2026. Company's own claim.
  48. 48.Mercor Data page. Accessed 14 Oct 2026. Company's own claim.
  49. 49.Cognor Labs partners page. Accessed 14 Oct 2026. Company's own claim.
  50. 50.Data Value Check website. Accessed 14 Oct 2026. Company's own claim.
  51. 51.Return My Time Sell My Data page. Accessed 14 Oct 2026. Company's own claim.
  52. 52.Supersoniq website. Accessed 14 Oct 2026.