US data brokers are selling half a billion dollars in RL training environments to Chinese AI labs

US data brokers like Mercor, Surge AI, and AfterQuery are selling roughly half a billion dollars' worth of AI training data to Chinese labs, according to a ChinaTalk investigation. That includes the same RL environments previously built for OpenAI or Anthropic. At least nine firms are involved, and export controls barely apply.

Nov 11, 2026 - 17:00
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US data brokers are selling half a billion dollars in RL training environments to Chinese AI labs
US data brokers like Mercor, Surge AI, and AfterQuery are selling roughly half a billion dollars' worth of AI training data to Chinese labs, according to a ChinaTalk investigation. That includes the same RL environments previously built for OpenAI or Anthropic. At least nine firms are involved, and export controls barely apply.

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