According to ME News, as of April 14 (UTC+8), its AI training business has generated an annualized gross revenue nearing $1 billion, up from $550 million in January this year and just $5 million to $10 million a year ago. After deducting payments to contractors, the net revenue from the AI training business is close to $300 million. Handshake’s original university recruitment software business generates an additional annualized gross revenue of approximately $150 million. Handshake is among at least the fourth data labeling company in recent years to surpass $1 billion in annualized gross revenue. Previously, Surge AI reached this milestone first in 2024, and Scale AI also achieved it prior to Meta acquiring nearly half of its equity. The three-year-old AI outsourcing platform Mercor also crossed the $1 billion mark earlier this year (up from $500 million in September last year), with a net revenue of $300 million to $400 million after contractor costs, and has achieved free cash flow profitability. However, following a data breach at the end of March, Meta has indefinitely suspended its partnership with Mercor, and it remains unclear whether its revenue has been impacted. Among other competitors, Turing reached $300 million in annualized revenue by the end of 2024, while AfterQuery announced last week that it surpassed $100 million in revenue with a $300 million valuation. These companies’ clients include AI labs such as Anthropic and OpenAI, whose core business involves organizing professionals—such as lawyers, PhDs, and doctors—as contract workers to score models and answer domain-specific questions. Demand from AI labs for high-quality training data produced by domain experts continues to grow, but this business has limited moats: top labs can easily switch between vendors, and some companies opt to build in-house teams; xAI, for instance, directly hired over 1,000 remote trainers. (Source: BlockBeats)
Handshake AI Training Business to Approach $10 Billion in Annual Revenue by 2026
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Summary
Altcoins to watch are gaining traction as the AI training sector surges, with Handshake’s business nearing $10 billion in annualized gross revenue by April 14, 2026. This follows a jump from $5.5 billion in January and just $5–10 million a year earlier. Net revenue is close to $3 billion after contractor payments. Handshake’s original software business generates about $1.5 billion. Other firms, such as Surge AI and Scale AI, have also reached $10 billion in revenue, serving clients including Anthropic and OpenAI. Amid this growth, the Fear & Greed Index reflects heightened market optimism.
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