Handshake, Mercor Revenue Surges on Demand for Human Contractors to Train AI

AI firms’ voracious appetite for data has lifted sales for obscure startups doing the industry’s unglamorous work: contracting with lawyers, Phd holders and medical doctors who grade the answers AI models generate. The latest is Handshake, a 12-year-old startup that began as a job site for college graduates. Handshake’s gross annualized revenue from has risen to nearly $1B, up from $550M in January and $5M to $10M a year ago, a few months after it started the new business, according to two people familiar with its finances.