Micro1 Plans $1 Billion Spend to License Companies' Workplace Data

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As AI labs hunt for real-world data, the startup Micro1 is putting serious money into supplying it. The company belongs to a new class of fast-moving data brokers that collect companies' internal data and package it for model developers such as OpenAI and Anthropic.

Micro1 says it pays $100,000 to $2 million for the data of a single midsize company, and it recently announced plans to spend $1 billion on the effort over the next year. For the executives who sell, it means joining a new corner of the economy where terabytes of everyday workplace interactions can be worth hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Ilya Brotzky, CEO and cofounder of the recruiting startup VanHack, told Business Insider he was shocked when he filled out a Micro1 survey about his company's data and received a "substantial" offer. "I didn't believe it, to be honest," he said. "I felt like it was a little too good to be true." Brotzky and the other executives Business Insider spoke to would not share the exact amounts their companies received.

From books to workplace simulations

The focus on workplace data follows a broader evolution in the industry. AI companies first took in text from the internet and old books. Then they found that humans grading AI responses could improve their models. Now they use complex simulations built on real-world data to improve the skill of their AI.

Gartner estimated that spending on AI data will surge from less than $1 billion last year to almost $6.5 billion in 2027. Micro1 chief revenue officer William Almeida says he explains to prospective customers why their data is suddenly so valuable. "Every time I talk to companies, I tell them, 'Hey, I see this as a booming business,'" he said.

Three ways to work with a lab

Micro1 works with AI model developers in three ways. It can take a company's raw data, transform it to protect privacy and license it to a lab. It can give a company an in-progress AI agent and collect feedback on how it works. The third route is a simulation: Micro1 takes a company's data up to a certain timestamp, freezes it, and hands that "environment" to a developer who wants to teach a model to work from existing context.

Larger and more complex datasets earn higher payments, as does data that represents a unique type of work or knowledge. Micro1 usually wants to license a company's entire data corpus, so that an AI model can replicate what it would be like to be a human employee. "The connection, the diversity, the traceability of all of these data points, they matter a lot when you think about model training," Almeida said.

What the sellers handed over

Brotzky also received an offer from the AI data startup Mercor but chose Micro1. After looking into its privacy process, he said, he felt comfortable sharing everything requested: VanHack's Google suite, Confluence data, Slack messages and customer relationship management software.

Grant Gooley, CEO of the agency MyPortal Marketing, sold internal design files from Figma and Canva and checklists from Monday.com. "When we were building these processes years ago, I didn't think that we would be using it to support AI learning," he said.

Open questions remain. Former and current employees are unlikely to get compensation from the deals or a voice in them. Ifeoma Ajunwa, a law professor at Emory University, previously told Business Insider that data sales are an "ethically gray area." Almeida tells prospects the business is in its early days: "If you wait too much, you won't get the premium that the first companies are getting."

The deal gave VanHack's team a confidence boost because it represents an additional revenue stream, Brotzky said. Gooley said he kept his employees in the loop and has heard no complaints.

Source: Business Insider