Mercor, a startup established two years ago, specializes in supplying domain experts to companies like OpenAI and Meta. These experts are tasked with training and refining foundational AI models. At present, Mercor is engaged in discussions with investors for its third funding round, with ambitions to surpass a valuation of $10 billion. Earlier, the company secured $100 million in its Series B funding phase, attaining a valuation of $2 billion.

Mercor's annualized revenue is nearing $450 million, with profits amounting to $6 million in the first half of the year. It is projected to hit $500 million in annual revenue at a faster pace than Anysphere. The bulk of its revenue stems from supplying specialized domain experts to five prominent AI labs, billing on an hourly basis, and functioning as a data labeling contractor.

Mercor has plans to bolster its software infrastructure for reinforcement learning and create an AI-powered recruitment marketplace. Despite facing rivalry from firms such as Surge AI, the co-founders have mentioned that the company isn't actively pursuing funding and turns down numerous offers each month.

All three co-founders of Mercor dropped out of Harvard, and the company has also brought on board the former Chief Product Officer of Uber as its president. Nevertheless, Mercor is currently embroiled in a lawsuit with Scale AI over alleged trade secret violations.