Micro1

Data vendor, HQ United States. Pivoted from AI recruiting to human data and robotics data; workers mount iPhones on their heads to film chores for humanoid training. Valuation rose eightfold to US$4B in a year.

Data it collects

Workers in

ArgentinaIndiaNigeriaPhilippines

Known buyers

Scale

• thousands of contract workers in more than 50 countries (2026-04-01)
• tens of thousands of hours of footage (2026-04-01)
• gross annual run rate grew from $100M to $500M in eight months (2026-08-20)
• Thousands of contract workers in 50+ countries; tens of thousands of hours of footage (2026-04-01)

Pay

• US$15 an hour for a Nigeria-based household-video worker (MIT Technology Review, Apr 2026); US$50 to US$90 per hour to annotate videos of robots performing tasks (Forbes, Sep 2026)
• $15/h Micro1 head-mounted chore video technologyreview.com ↗ Major outlet

Events

• 2026-08-20 Micro1 hits $500M gross run rate techcrunch.com ↗ Major outlet
• 2026-04-01 MIT Technology Review: gig workers film chores for humanoid training technologyreview.com ↗ Major outlet
• 2025-11-02 Micro1 pays people in Brazil, Argentina, India and US to wear recording glasses latimes.com ↗ Major outlet

Sources

• Micro1 has hired thousands of contract workers in more than 50 countries, including India, Nigeria, and Argentinatechnologyreview.com ↗ Major outlet 2026-04-01
• Zeus is paid $15 an hour, which is good income in Nigeria's strained economy with high unemployment rates.technologyreview.com ↗ Major outlet 2026-04-01
• Micro1 says it has tens of thousands of hours of footagetechnologyreview.com ↗ Major outlet 2026-04-01
• For confidentiality reasons, says Ansari, Micro1 doesn't name its clients or disclose to workers the specific nature of the projects they are contributing to.technologyreview.com ↗ Major outlet 2026-04-01
• Meta-backed Scale AI has gathered 100,000 hours of footage for robotics, while its Palo Alto-based competitor Micro1 employs 1,000 people across 60 countries to record household tasks.latimes.com ↗ Major outlet 2026-03-12
• catapults Micro1's valuation eightfold in just a year, up from US$500 million in September 2025forbes.com.au ↗ Major outlet 2026-09
• reached a US$500 million gross annual run rateforbes.com.au ↗ Major outlet 2026-09
• frontier AI labs, Microsoft, Amazon and robotics companies like 1Xforbes.com.au ↗ Major outlet 2026-09
• Zeus is paid $15 an hour, which is good income in Nigeria’s strained economy with high unemployment rates.technologyreview.com ↗ Major outlet 2026-04-01
• Zeus is paid $15 an hour, which is good income in Nigeria’s strained economytechnologyreview.com ↗ Major outlet 2026-04-01

Every row links to its source, and hovering a link shows the quote it rests on. Research compiled 2026-10-05. Method