Micro1 pledges $1 billion to buy corporate data for AI training

Micro1, a fast-moving data-broker startup, unveiled a $1 billion investment to acquire workplace data from midsize companies for use by AI labs like OpenAI and Anthropic. The company pays between $100,000 and $2 million per client, depending on dataset size, complexity and uniqueness, and can provide raw, privacy-protected data, an in-progress AI agent for feedback, or a frozen simulation environment for model training.

VanHack CEO Ilya Brotzky and MyPortal Marketing CEO Grant Gooley both accepted offers after confirming Micro1’s privacy procedures, sharing assets such as Slack messages, Google Docs, and design files. Micro1’s chief revenue officer William Almeida says the market for AI-training data is booming, with Gartner projecting industry spend to climb from under $1 billion last year to nearly $6.5 billion by 2027. Legal scholars note ethical concerns, as employees whose work is sold receive no compensation or voice in the process.