Nvidia is moving to invest in Mercury, a supplier of training data for its AI models, in a deal that could value Mercury at $20 billion. Mercury sells training data used to build AI models, and General Catalyst is reported to be discussing leading the funding round. The company’s revenue has surged, with annual revenue topping $2 billion in June 2026 and first-half revenue at $614 million. The talks come as scrutiny of recycling finance resurfaces and market indicators have shifted.

The race to secure AI training data is shifting from improving chatbot answers to teaching systems how people actually work, Business Insider reported. Large language models have advanced using internet text, books and human ratings, but that approach has limits for building AI agents that handle complex work over hours or days. Companies are turning to reinforcement learning environments that simulate workplaces and reward task completion. Google, Tesla, Meta, Scale AI and Uber are cited as pursuing such efforts.